Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 43 The Boyd Women Artists: The Hidden Line.

A conversation with curator Sophie O’Brien

For decades, the Boyd name has resonated through Australian art history — yet the creative lives of the Boyd women, the artists who worked in the shadows and around the edges of that celebrated dynasty, have too often been overlooked.

At Bundanon NSW, a remarkable new exhibition is changing that. The exhibition is called The Hidden Line: The Art of the Boyd Women and it brings together paintings, drawings, ceramics and textiles that reveal a brilliant artistic lineage stretching back through 5 generations of Boyd women.

The exhibition could almost be described as a redrawing of the Boyd family story, revealing the works of women whose contributions were always there, just not always seen.

At the heart of this reclamation is Sophie O’Brien. Sophie is a very successful curator, director and writer. She has previously worked in senior curatorial leadership roles at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Aotearoa New Zealand, and at the Serpentine Galleries and Tate Britain in London. She has also worked on numerous large-scale commissions with renowned international artists and has previously led the exhibition teams for the Australian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney.

We had a lovely conversation about the discoveries, the surprises, and the emotional resonance of finally bringing the Boyd women into the light.

The exhibition is now on at Bundanon till Feb 2026. Follow the link to find out more.

https://www.bundanon.com.au/the-hidden-line/

With greatest of thanks to @articulate.advisory and @sian_davies for inviting me

Insta images:

1 Mary Nolan, Tessa, Arles 1964

2 Yvonne Boyd, Melbourne Tram 1944 oil on muslin on cardboard

3 Lucy Boyd Beck, Orpheus and Eurydice c 1974-9 glazed stoneware painting

4 Hermia Boyd & David Boyd Jug with rabbit, bird and fox undated, ceramic

5 Lucy Boyd, Pulpit Rock 1985 oil on canvas

6 Portrait room, Bundanon

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 42 Natasha Walsh

Natasha Walsh doesn’t make art for the Archibald Portrait Prize. She is really interested in building her practice in a way that interests her.

Nevertheless, in 2025, in her early 30s, she became an Archibald finalist for the 8th time!

One of those finalist years (2018), coincided with her winning the Kilgour Prize, the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and the Mosman Art Prize tying with Margaret Olley as the youngest ever winner.

But it certainly hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Far from it.

It was a lovely long, far ranging, very open and, at times, emotional conversation. Which isn’t surprising given her horrific experiences in Paris whilst attending the Whiteley Scholarship.

But I reckon Natasha is very brave. In life as well as her art.

We discussed the enormous effect her dyslexia and ADHD had on her life and how the Nat. Art School helped smooth some paths for her. It was a beautiful insight to an artist’s mind and thinking and creative process.

With her experimentations (especially with copper) and successes and persistence and resilience and her constant challenging of existing structures of bias...it’s little wonder she’s been described as a key figure in a new generation of Australian artists.

Head to the link in my bio to hear our conversation.

Natasha is represented by N.Smith Gallery

Insta images

1 NW portrait by Janie Barrett

2 Dear Hilma (The quiet point of a meeting), 2022 oil on copper 30 x 22 cm

3 The Voyeur (formerly Untitled) 2023 oil on copper 60x60 reference Egon Schiele The Hermits (Self portrait with Gustav Klimt 1912)

4 Portrait of a Young Medusa 2023 oil on copper 26x18 sitter: Montaigne (profile Portrait of a Young Lady 1465)

5 The Yellow Odalisque of Brunswick 2024 oil on copper 53x50 sitter Atong Atem (reference Matisse Yellow Odalisque 1937)

6 Dreaming of rose scented tea leaves carried to me on a summer breeze 2025 oil & pigment on copper 74x100

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 41 Evelyn Chapman - a conversation with Dr Anne Gerard-Austin

Dr. Anne Gérard-Austin is the Curator of International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales and a significant contributor to the current exhibition at the AGNSW, Dangerously Modern, Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940.

And we were discussing the Australian artist, Evelyn Chapman.

By the time World War I ended in November 1918, Evelyn Chapman was already an established young painter, with training in Sydney, Paris, and London (which is a story in itself!).

Like many artists of her generation, she had been profoundly shaped by her exposure to European modernist ideas before the war. However, it was the devastation of the conflict — and her extraordinary access to the Western Front — that would give her most enduring works their form and content.

Evelyn Chapman’s work from France is characterised by the juxtaposition of devastation and rebirth. She recorded shattered churches, cratered fields, destroyed villages, and trenches filled with wreckage. Yet, unlike official war artists who often focused on the mechanics of war and military life, Chapman’s eye lingered on the aftermath: broken walls standing against the sky, poppies springing up from scarred ground, light piercing through collapsed arches.

On returning to Paris in 1919–20, her battlefield works were exhibited at the Salon des Beaux Arts, where they were admired for their emotional clarity and technical execution.

Head to the link in my bio to hear our conversation

Instagram images

1. Ruined church with poppies, Villers-Bretonneux circa 1919
oil & tempera on thick grey cardboard 39 x 30.5

2. EC painting at Villers-Bretonneux gelatin silver photograph
19.9 x 15

3. Old trench, French battlefield 1919
oil & tempera on textured grey paper on cardboard
54 x 73.3

4. Interior of a ruined church, France 1919
oil & tempera on grey card on board
56.3 x 41.4

5. Ruined buildings 1919
oil & tempera on grey card
28.8 x 38.5 cm board

6. May Moore, portrait of Evelyn Chapman 1920–1928
gelatin silver photograph 14.8 x 8.4