Yarra River at Warrandyte, c. 1930
Miss Jo Sweatman, the Melbourne artist, is one who delights to paint the beauties of nature as she finds them on a bush track. There is no gainsaying that some of these bits of sunlight and shade round the gum trees make very attractive landscapes. In Miss Sweatman's recent exhibition at the Athenaeum there were on view "White Gums" and views of more distant tree topped ranges. Warrandyte, a little township on thc Yarra, has for some time been the happy hunting ground of artists, for it has many a beauty spot, and here Miss Sweatman has gone for some of her best bush scenes. Figures and flowers were included in the exhibition but probably most people would covet most one of the bush scenes which are so truly Australian
Estelle Mary (Jo) Sweatman was born in South Yarra in 1872 and attedned the Nattional Gallery School where she studied for two years under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall. She taught at Melbourne Girls Grammar with one pupil Clarice Beckett becoming on of the leading lights in the Meldrum school. Her love of nature and landscape painting brought her to Warrandyte where she built a home next to Heidelberg school painter Clara Southern with both pioneering women helping to develop the artistic community in Warrandyte. She died in 1956 and is consider to be one of Australia's most famous painters of wattles.