Margarita Stipnieks 1910 - 2010

Margarita Stipnieks was born in Latvia, in 1910  and graduated from the Academy of Art in Riga. After exhibiting in Europe and the United States of America, Stipnieks arrived in Australia in 1950, and settled in Adelaide, painting still-life (especially flowers), portraits and figure work. She was accepted as a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts, and in 1963 was appointed visiting lecturer at the South Australian School of Art.

Stipnieks' still life flower paintings turn a mundane subject into an adventurous work of art. Stipnieks's confident technique produces a crowded canvas, where richly-decorated geometric shapes compete with the creative energy of the flowers. The artist uses a myriad of brilliant colours to produce these works of intense vitality.