September 2026
Portia Geach Memorial Award
The winner of the 2026 Portia Geach Memorial Award for women portrait painters is soon to be announced. This year, for the 62nd iteration, there are 56 finalists drawn from across the country, their subjects representing the diversity of Australia’s population. They compete for a prize of $30,000 with the exhibition, held at the S.H.Ervin Gallery in Sydney, showcasing some of Australia’s finest women portrait painters.
It is a timely opportunity to look at Margaret Woodward’s first contribution to the Award. For the inaugural Portia Geach Memorial Award in 1965, Margaret prepared the self-portrait opposite. Margaret directs her gaze firmly at the viewer, supporting both her right as a portrait painter and the objective of the Award to showcase women artists. The colours leap out from the picture plane, the creative Margaret shown as gregarious and glowing.
1965 was the year Margaret’s daughter Britt was born, her pregnancy a time of self-reflection and awareness of the life-changing event. The winning portrait of the inaugural Portia Geach Memorial Award was Self-portrait by Jean Appleton with self-portraits regular winners throughout the years. Margaret went onto win the Award in 1983 with a self-portrait and then again in 1984 with a portrait of Madeleine Halliday.
May 2026
With the announcement of the 2026 Archibald Prize winner, it is timely to look at Margaret Woodward’s entries to the highly coveted prize. Her first submission to the Archibald was in 1970 with the work Self-portrait with Britt, a painting that explores her relationship with her young daughter. It was the first of seven short-listed entries in total over fourteen years for Margaret, yet her hard work was never rewarded with the Archibald. She did, however, have success with the Wynne Prize in 1971, matched by her inclusion in several prestigious group exhibitions and one woman shows at both the Holdsworth Galleries in Sydney and the Greenhill Galleries in Adelaide – and success twice with the Portia Geach Memorial Award …