Dry River Bed, 2019, oil on canvas, 45x45cm by Elisabeth Cummings, Charles Sturt University Collection, Wagga Wagga, NSW
Dry River Bed, 2019, by Elisabeth Cummings has been acquired by the Charles Sturt University Collection, for the William Merrylees Library (located at the Wagga Wagga campus in NSW).
Cummings is one of Australia’s most respected living artists with a career spanning over 60 years. Many say she is the most prominent Australian painter, the collection holds a selection of her prints. Gifted by the artist. Cummings studied at the National Art School in Sydney and was awarded the AGNSW Travelling Art Scholarship in 1958. Elisabeth Cummings held a solo exhibition at the Bank Art Museum Moree [BAMM] ‘In Her Own Time’ from April 4 to May 31, 2025 presented a selection of works on paper and canvas, from her 40-year career. Her highly anticipated 2024 solo exhibition at King Street Gallery on William showcased a suite of gouache paintings in February that year. The exhibition followed her hugely successful 2023 retrospective exhibition ‘Radiance, The Art of Elisabeth Cummings’ held at the National Art School, Sydney. In 2022 she was part of ‘Know my Name’ at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Her 2022 exhibition ‘Through the Window’ at King Street Gallery sold out. History:Cummings lived in Europe for a decade, painting and, for a short time, studied under Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg. On her return to Sydney, Australia, and through a generous donation of land from Barbara & Nick Romalis, Elisabeth Cummings — along with Roy Jackson and John Peart — established an artists’ community at Wedderburn in the early ’70s. Elisabeth continues to work from her studio there today. Cummings’ bold use of colour and exaggerated mark-making is her signature approach to the Australian landscape. An intrepid traveller, Elisabeth continues her journeys around the Australian bush, painting smaller ‘en plein air’ works, as well as larger pieces back in the studio. She frequently returns to Wedderburn, where Elisabeth finds unending subject matter in the interior of her studio and in the surrounds she knows so well.
This painting now accompanies a selection of etchings and prints by Elisabeth Cummings, that were donated to Charles Sturt University under the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.