Davida Allen
Magpie Tree
1993
oil on board
193 x 303 cm
On display in the UTS Tower stairway between Levels 3 and 4 [CB01.03-04]
Painted during the school holidays of 1992–93, The Magpie Tree captures a familiar Australian encounter: two children cycling rapidly past a tree while avoiding swooping magpies. The birds themselves remain out of sight, but their presence is suggested through the urgency and movement of the riders.
Allen based the painting on her own children, recalling that her daughters became adept at riding one-handed while carrying sticks to ward off the birds. Her vigorous handling of paint, strong colour and simplified forms transform this everyday family experience into a lively landscape charged with movement.
The Magpie Tree was selected as a finalist in the Art Gallery of NSW’s Wynne Prize for Australian landscape painting in 1993. It was donated to the UTS Art Collection by Michael Shera in 2001.
Davida Allen (born 1951, Bidjara Country/Charleville) is an Australian painter, writer and filmmaker known for her highly personal approach to subjects including family, relationships, motherhood and the Queensland landscape. Her paintings are characterised by vigorous brushwork, heavily worked surfaces and strong colour.
Allen studied with artists Betty Churcher and Roy Churcher in Brisbane and began exhibiting with Ray Hughes Gallery in 1973. During the 1980s she attracted national attention for autobiographical works drawn from her experiences of family and domestic life. In 1986 she won the Archibald Prize with a portrait of her father-in-law, Dr John Shera.
Allen's practice extends beyond painting and drawing to writing and filmmaking. She wrote and illustrated The Autobiography of Vicki Myers: Close to the Bone and What is a Portrait?, and wrote and directed the feature film Feeling Sexy (1999). A major survey, Davida Allen: In the Moment, was presented at Griffith University Art Museum in 2018, bringing together work from five decades of her practice.
Her work is held in major Australian public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and the state galleries of Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, as well as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
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