This complex work undertaken by Margaret during her years at the National Art School shows her early talent for colour and construction. She works up the portrait using a tonal palette of cool soft colours, as though influenced by the pattern of a dress her grandmother may have worn. The slightly crooked glasses and tilt of the head appear familiar, the bun at the nape of her neck discerned by using a darker colour. While quite possibly a student exercise to experiment with colour, Margaret has exceeded the brief by imbuing the work with her grandmother’s character. 

There is a sense that she has looked at the cubists and fauvists and was attracted to the way they deconstructed the planes of the face to discern character. She has studied their use of placing pure squares of colour, using a flat brush, side by side to create a definition of features and cohesive work.

Most artists paint family portraits, the French Impressionists known for elevating the subjects within their domestic sphere. Margaret portrayed most of her family members, ready models for a young aspiring artist, yet this work is the most interesting and suggestive of her ability. Margaret admired her grandmother, if the portrait is any indication of her respect for the woman from whom she gained her understanding of the world. As Britt, Margaret’s daughter has explained, it was Margaret’s grandmother who helped fund their European trip in 1967, the journey an opportunity for Margaret to embrace the pictures she had only been able to study in art books.

References 

Gavin Fry, Margaret Woodward: Paintings 1950-2002, Sydney, Beagle Press, 2002, plate 10.