Biography

Preston’s dynamic wood block prints of the 1920s, featuring vases of mixed native flowers, changed after 1934 when the artist visited Japan a second time to study woodblock printing. There she was influenced by the Japanese aesthetic of recognizing beauty in nature’s imperfections. Upon her return to Berowra, north of Sydney, Preston abandoned pictorial symmetry in favour of open compositions of living flowers she found in her environment.

Katherine McDonald, Forever Spring exhibition, 17/09/21