Margaret Ackland

My work takes as its reference observations both large and small, profound and whimsical. I document the many small moments that fill the narrative of a life, as well as continuing to reference events that shape our understanding of this often bewildering world. These small watercolours are rendered directly onto handmade paper with no under-drawing. Each one evolves over the course of a single day, beginning in the early morning and revisited many times to apply layers of transparent pigment. Watercolour is a medium that can seem delicate and even slight, but I hope that as these works accumulate they form a more profound reading of life here and now.
Artist Statement - Margaret Ackland

'Margaret Ackland creates a radiant poetics of the everyday, where representation is less about fidelity than about the volatility of seeing itself. For more than four decades, the Sydney-based artist has worked across still life, landscape, and portraiture, weaving intimate observations into an ongoing meditation on perception. Ackland’s practice sits within an Australian lineage of painterly observation, where the everyday is re-coded through heightened visual intelligence rather than straightforward depiction. In her still lifes, the domestic interior becomes a site of controlled instability, as reflective surfaces, patterned grounds and carefully arranged objects conjure dynamic tensions.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Elli Walsh 2026

'Reflections of light are a regular feature of Ackland’s watercolours, and if you peer closely enough you may catch the occasional glimpse of the artist herself in mirrored surfaces. Artists have been hiding likenesses of themselves in their paintings since the fifteenth century, the most notable example being Northern Renaissance painter Jan van Eyck in The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. Although scholars continue to debate the inclusion of van Eyck’s self-portrait hiding in the enigmatic wedding portrait, there is no doubt that the curved surfaces of the silver teapot and water jug in Scenes from a Marriage contain the likeness of Ackland and her husband Vic. Instead of a stiff portrait of newlyweds posing uncomfortably in their finery, Ackland’s domestic scene, snapped with her iPhone, depicts the ease and comfort of a long marriage.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Julie McLaren, Curator, Art Gallery of Ballarat 2024

'Looking into these loose vibrant watercolours; playfully busy, full of bold colouration and graphic complexity, they present us with a dizzying level of detail. Everything is in focus, bathed in a clear light that bends and bounces off the shining, reflective surfaces of her forms. Like little visual puzzles they invite us to peer through the distortions of glass and water and to register the warping curvature of silver. Our eyes trace the folding contours of the striped fabrics used as backdrops and watch their reflections ricochet around the picture plane. There seems always more to be observed, and we are taken into the artist’s own experience of perceiving. “The prolonged looking at every stage reveals lots of detail that is unexpected or went unnoticed in early stages” says Ackland of her own engagement with these images.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Phe Luxford 2022