Barbara Hanrahan

Barbara Hanrahan is one of Australia’s most visionary authors and artists. She trained at the South Australian School of Art and the Central School of Art in London, and exhibited and taught art internationally throughout her life. Her expressive, playful and unapologetic stories and artworks often centred around the female experience, her childhood in post-war Adelaide, and her creative and personal evolutions. Hanrahan and her partner, sculptor Jo Steele, lived between Adelaide and London until her death in 1991. Her prolific career resulted in an enormous catalogue of celebrated artworks; the National Gallery of Australia alone holds almost 500 pieces. She also published 16 books, including her somewhat scandalous posthumously published diaries and her debut novel, the perpetual classic The Scent of Eucalyptus.