In her current writing project Adrienne is exploring the lives and work of a selection of Australian women artists.
Woman on the Edge (Song for Clarice Beckett) combines biographical detail with references to the artist's style and artistic concerns.
Australian tonalist painter Clarice Beckett developed a unique personal style, painting most often in the open air, and responding to the landscape as she saw it. Her aim, she said, was “to give as nearly as possible an exact illusion of reality”.
When her parents retired and moved to Beaumaris, a seaside suburb of Melbourne, Clarice became their housekeeper and carer. Her painting was not encouraged but she continued to work, walking the cliffs and shores of Port Phillip Bay with her home-made cart filled with painting equipment.
After her death in 1935, aged only 48, her work was forgotten. In the late 1960s, a large cache of her paintings was rescued from a farm shed, and Clarice's reputation began to re-emerge.
The Art Gallery of South Australia holds a significant collection of Clarice Beckett's work.