Gloria Strazzabosco is an Australian artist, fashion illustrator, and curious being. She is a keen observer of life, and fascinated with the inner workings of the human psyche and anatomy.
She was born in 1940 in the South Gippsland farming town of Leongatha, and grew up there until she was 14. She then moved to Toorak in Melbourne to study a Diploma of Fashion Illustration at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Whilst there, she also snuck into medical lectures at Melbourne University, including lectures in the cadaver labs. This real life exposure to anatomy was a great asset in her understanding of the human form.
During the early 1960's, Gloria provided fashion illustrations for women's wear adverts in the Melbourne newspapers, and took up an art teaching job at Altona North Boys Technical College, where she was the only female on staff and an early union member. She taught various forms of art to boys only slightly younger than her, but won them over, having many stay back in breaks to keep creating.
After marriage and the birth of her first child, she moved from the bustling city to a quieter life on the Surf Coast of Victoria, where once she had a studio space, she created a wide variety of artwork. This included macro highly detailed drawings of bugs for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), oil paintings of local landscapes with subjects such as the local lighthouse and coast, graphic stencil designs and printing of T-shirts for the local primary school, illustrative art reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley from the 1920s, and fantasy pictures in Pen and ink. Being a mum of two children, art was done in her spare time.
Unfortunately due to a devastating bushfire in 1983, she lost all her artwork when the house was burnt to the ground. After the fires and now as a single mother, she moved to Geelong, Victoria, and set up a little art studio in her house where she started creating again.
Her art remained highly varied, from fantasy to figures, to fashion and spirit guide drawings and in a variety of mediums, ranging from pastels, to pen and ink, acrylics and oils. She was a curious and keen experimenter and as time progressed her art became more abstract, and on larger canvases.
This 28 page book of 58 photographs is a celebration of a selection of her work, spanning 2 decades, compiled by her daughter Soleil.
Gloria Strazzabosco is an Australian artist, fashion illustrator, and curious being. She is a keen observer of life, and fascinated with the inner workings of the human psyche and anatomy.
She was born in 1940 in the South Gippsland farming town of Leongatha, and grew up there until she was 14. She then moved to Toorak in Melbourne to study a Diploma of Fashion Illustration at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Whilst there, she also snuck into medical lectures at Melbourne University, including lectures in the cadaver labs. This real life exposure to anatomy was a great asset in her understanding of the human form.
During the early 1960's, Gloria provided fashion illustrations for women's wear adverts in the Melbourne newspapers, and took up an art teaching job at Altona North Boys Technical College, where she was the only female on staff and an early union member. She taught various forms of art to boys only slightly younger than her, but won them over, having many stay back in breaks to keep creating.
After marriage and the birth of her first child, she moved from the bustling city to a quieter life on the Surf Coast of Victoria, where once she had a studio space, she created a wide variety of artwork. This included macro highly detailed drawings of bugs for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), oil paintings of local landscapes with subjects such as the local lighthouse and coast, graphic stencil designs and printing of T-shirts for the local primary school, illustrative art reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley from the 1920s, and fantasy pictures in Pen and ink. Being a mum of two children, art was done in her spare time.
Unfortunately due to a devastating bushfire in 1983, she lost all her artwork when the house was burnt to the ground. After the fires and now as a single mother, she moved to Geelong, Victoria, and set up a little art studio in her house where she started creating again.
Her art remained highly varied, from fantasy to figures, to fashion and spirit guide drawings and in a variety of mediums, ranging from pastels, to pen and ink, acrylics and oils. She was a curious and keen experimenter and as time progressed her art became more abstract, and on larger canvases.
This 28 page book of 58 photographs is a celebration of a selection of her work, spanning 2 decades, compiled by her daughter Soleil.
