By biographer Jo Oliver, author of Adelaide Perry: artist and teacher

I’ve been researching the life of Adelaide Perry for three years, using archives, newspaper articles and interviews. Adelaide was part of the Modernist art movement in Australia and one of the innovative women printmakers between the wars. She and Margaret Preston were taught linocut techniques by Thea Proctor.

Adelaide studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and won a scholarship in 1920 to study at London’s Royal Academy of Art. She drew, painted and exhibited her work all her life.

This biography explores her life and work over a period when the lives of women changed radically. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of NSW and many other state and regional galleries, including Wollongong Art Gallery, which holds three of her local paintings.

Adelaide drew and painted in the Northern Illawarra from 1927. Her works were exhibited in a solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries later that year. Adelaide continued to visit the area and painted here with her friend Grace Cossington Smith over the summer of 1930/31.

Adelaide was also a highly regarded teacher of art. The Adelaide Perry Gallery has been named in her honour and the prestigious Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing each year continues the legacy of this remarkable Australian.

Jo will be in conversation with Margaret Throsby at 6pm on Wednesday, 26 October Upstairs at Ryan’s Hotel. Bookings essential via Collins Booksellers Thirroul: 4267 1408, thirroul@collinsbooks.com.au