Painting with purpose

Kathleen McArthur was a self-taught artist. When her interest in wildflower painting began in the early 1950s the only book on Queensland wildflowers she was able to find was that published in 1929 by wildflower lover Estelle Thomson (Flowers of our bush, with an introduction by C.T. White, Brisbane, Read Press).

As Kathleen’s painting developed from humble beginnings with her children’s paints, she found that wildflowers had ‘their own history, folklore, literature, biology and place in the environment’ (Kathleen McArthur, 1989, Living on the Coast p 15). Determined to know more, Kathleen spent the year of 1953 recording, drawing and painting the seasonal flowering of Queensland wildflowers.

Unable to get a publisher interested in her work she produced prints and greeting cards from her paintings. Kathleen then self-published her first book, Queensland wildflowers: a selection, in 1959, under the supportive imprint of Jacaranda Press, whose owner Brian Clouston later became a WPSQ co-founder.

Thus began a life-long pursuit encouraging the ‘art of seeing’ wildflowers through her paintings.

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