Margaret Summerton

My favourite activities include boot sales, going to the tip and op shops, and I get “absolutely giddy” about hard rubbish collection time. So, over the years, I have learned to do such things as refinish furniture, interior decoration, folk art painting, mosaics, leadlight, glass arts, sewing, quilting, embroidery, recycled sculpture, and so on. I have always been a creative person but mostly I would describe myself as an aesthete. I admire beauty in the world and greatly admire timeless design. I love collecting weird and wonderful things.

I have no formal art training and have never attended an art class in my life. I had to be endlessly practical in my choices as a young person, because there was no one to fall back on or pick up any pieces. I worked my way through university, changing from an arty degree in Theatre to a practical one in Psychology. I married and had a couple of kids while attending University, but when I finished, I found there was no career waiting for me with that level of education. I still yearned for art school but driven by practicality, completed my Masters in Psychology. I had another child then started a career as a School Counselor. And then, everything changed. I divorced my partner, moved out with the kids and worked two jobs for many years. It wasn’t all bad; I still met with my quilting friends, made my Christmas gifts and stripped furniture.

And then it all changed again. I met and fell in love with an Australian, kissed my friends and family goodbye and shipped my life to Eltham. Emigrating was not easy and I spent the next two years fighting deportation back to the States. During that time I was not allowed to work, so I enrolled at the Eltham Living and Learning Centre, first with lead lighting and then taught myself to do glass mosaics. I took classes and sold quite a number of pieces. By then, I was hooked and fantasizing about a career in art. I guess I have the Immigration department to thank!

Fate intervened and I met a local, successful artist who volunteered to teach me to paint. I had never picked up a brush before and it was the scariest thing that I have ever done. It still can be. He taught me the basics of drawing and the complexity of working with oils. His goal was to bring me to exhibition level. He attended my first solo exhibition like a proud father, gave me a congratulatory hug, and wished me well.  I haven’t seen him since.

That was only three years ago and I’ve not put a brush down since. Until recently, I hadn’t looked at glass or collected hard rubbish. I am in love with painting, I think about it all the time, and I dream about it at night. But I have suddenly come full circle.  I have a new inspiration to combine all of my skills and make a form of art for myself that is sculptural and painterly and reflects both the Aussie bush that I live in and the colourful Californian culture in which I was raised.  I am on a new tangent and I like it.