Margaret Preston painted this portrait in 1930 at the request of the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She confessed she was thrilled to receive the commission to paint what was, for her, an untested subject. As she later pointed out, '… my self portrait is completed, but I am a flower painter – I am not a flower'. In a work as carefully designed and as uncompromising as the artist's still lifes, Preston identifies and separates the essentials of her art: her brush and palette and a pot of wildflowers, a favorite subject, on the sill behind her. [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/937/] One of Australia’s most significant artists, Margaret Preston was a key figure in the development of modern art in Sydney from the 1920s to the 1950s. Renowned for her paintings and woodcuts of local landscapes and native flora, she was an outspoken public voice on Australian culture and championed a distinctly Australian style, based on the principles and motifs of modernist, Aboriginal and Asian art. ... [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/preston-margaret/]