Watch a short highlights video of this episode on the TWP YouTube channel

In this special International Women’s Day episode I speak with acclaimed artist, and previous podcast guest, Ann Thomson about building a career in the male-dominated art world of the mid-20th century.

Born in 1933, Ann’s art education took place during the 1950s and early 60s, a time when male artists like Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, John Brack and Charles Blackman dominated the Australian art scene.

Today Ann Thomson is one of Australia’s most respected and internationally acclaimed artists. A painter and sculptor, she has held more than 60 solo exhibitions, won numerous awards, and her work is represented in major public collections. As this episode is released, an exhibition of her work is also showing at Messums Gallery in London.

Links

• Ann Thomson on Instagram

• Ann Thomson at Messums

• Talking with Painters YouTube channel

• Talking with Painters on Instagram

• Talking with Painters on Facebook

• Maria Stoljar on LinkedIn

• Sign up for the Talking with Painters newsletter

• Podcast interview with Thomson on her life and art

• Podcast interview with Thomson on Ian Fairweather

• Podcast interview with Thomson in her 90th year

• Video highlights of this episode

https://youtu.be/94aHBnKwR2w?si=SCWA0GDPvevSDMyM

Watch highlights from this conversation on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel

I loved this conversation with Mary Tonkin at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, before the start of her survey exhibition Among the Trees (opening 3 January 2026). The show brings together paintings, drawings and ceramics dating from 2008, works that reflect Mary’s deep relationship with her family farm in Victoria’s Dandenong ranges and with painting from life. Her painting ‘Ramble Kalorama’, measuring almost 19 metres long, is a magnificent meditation on what it is to be in the Australian landscape and was a huge hit at the 2022 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair.

Mary Tonkin has won many awards and her works are held in major public institutions and private collections. She is represented by Australian Galleries.

NB: When Mary speaks about her teacher Geoff in this conversation she is referring to Geoff Dupree.

Links

• Mary Tonkin on Instagram
• Mary Tonkin at Australian Galleries
• ‘Among the Trees’, S.H.Ervin Gallery, 3 January to 1 March 2026
• Highlights YouTube video
• My instagram reel of ‘Ramble, Kalorama’ at Sydney Contemporary (2022)

https://youtu.be/84JSU210-38?si=78SsLYUPGalbja-g

‘Ramble, Kalorama’ (2017–2019) at Sydney Contemporary, 2022
18.9m x 1.8m (21 panels)
Oil on linen

‘Coprosma Madonna, Kalorama’ 2021-22
oil on linen 320 x 610cm
Photographer Matthew Stanton

‘Madre, Kalorama’ 2008
oil on linen 244cm x 508 cm
Photographer John Brash

‘A scream, Kalorama’ 2023
oil on linen 214 x 366cm
Photograph Matthew Stanton

‘Regent, Kalorama’ 2012 charcoal on paper 241 x 271cm Photographer John Brash

‘Saint Anthony Beaten By Devils’ 24.5cm x 39.5cm
Sassetta, c1423, 1424
Pinacoteca Nazionale

A highlights video from this episode will also be coming soon to the Talking with Painters YouTube channel

In this episode, I visit the studio of acclaimed abstract painter Aida Tomescu just days before the opening of her exhibition Messiaen at Fox Jensen Gallery in Sydney. The exhibition continues until 20 December 2025.

• Aida Tomescu on Instagram
• Aida Tomescu website
• Aida Tomescu at Fox Jensen Gallery
• Talking with Painters website
• Talking with Painters on Instagram
• Subscribe here for my monthly newsletter

Previous TWP YouTube videos of Aida Tomescu:

• Aida Tomescu – extended interview
• Aida Tomescu talks with Maria Stoljar (uncut)
• Aida Tomescu in her studio (2017)
• Aida Tomescu talks with Maria Stoljar about ‘Tuckson: the abstract sublime’
• Aida Tomescu’s 2019 show ‘The Open Wounds of White Clouds’

Previous podcast conversations with Aida Tomescu:

• Episode 33 – Aida Tomescu
• Episode 63 – Aida Tomescu on Tony Tuckson
• Episode 116 – Aida Tomescu (uncut)

Messiaen II 2024
200x460cm
oil on Belgian linen
Photo: Jenni Carter

Messiaen III 2025
200 x 306cm
Oil on Belgian linen
Photo: Jenni Carter

Messiaen 2013
oil and pigments on canvas
184 x 153 cm
This is the work Tomescu refers to at the beginning of the episode