Maggie May Jeffries

Based in nipaluna/Hobart and living in Moonah, Maggie May Jeffries’ painting practice is deeply informed by memory, place, and long-held relationships with the landscapes of her childhood.

Her parents’ homes – sites she has returned to repeatedly over the past seven years – continue to shape her work, particularly the gardens and surrounding bushland that first inspired her engagement with painting. " My work started off deeply connected to these sites of growth which continue to inform my approach to painting now, as I experiment with new ways to encounter place and my environment."

Maggie’s botanical oil paintings explore the nature of remembering through layered compositions of plants, shadow, and light. Central to her practice is a close attention to the intricate details of the natural world. " These paintings are intended to become documentations of my experience, reminiscent of the ways I would explore as a child," she explains.

Image: Maggie working in her Hobart studio. Photo: QVMAG.

Recently, her practice has begun to question a “rewilding” of her painting process – allowing compositions to unfold organically through the collection of plants and encounters with place.

Alongside her painting, Maggie maintains an ongoing enquiry into creative collaboration. Through her work with Second Echo Ensemble, she engages with artists across different disciplines and mediums. " This interdisciplinary approach to making work continues to broaden my understanding of creative process, and in turn, inspiring my painting practice," she says.

Inspiration for Maggie’s work is grounded in childhood wonder and the act of noticing. Memories of early encounters with gardens and natural environments inform how she selects, arranges, and paints botanical forms. Her compositions reflect the abstract ways memory is stored and recalled, balancing careful observation with intuitive structure.

Each painting begins with a memory or the sensation of being immersed in a site of growth. Maggie works directly from life and photographs, collecting botanical forms from her current surroundings. She does not plan compositions in advance; instead, works emerge gradually as each painted element informs the next. Thin layers of oil paint are built up over time, creating depth in tone, texture, and colour.

Image: Maggie's paint palette. Photo: QVMAG.

Maggie’s pathway into art began early, with art classes from the age of seven, though painting became her focus during college. " Through paint, I felt I could depict nostalgia in a way which I personally, could not quite reach with drawing," she notes.

Majoring in painting at the University of Tasmania, her series in her final year of study was selected for Despard Gallery’s Summer Show 2018/2019, marking an important moment in the development of her practice.

Maggie hopes RISE audiences are drawn into their own recollections of gardens on viewing her work. "I find myself hoping that some elements of my work will appeal to a viewer's sensory experience and imagination. In the case of one of these works - Billie Bramble - I hope that viewers can imagine the painting as if it were a growing garden, an experiment of my most recent approach to painting."

Her advice to other emerging artists is simple: approach making with curiosity rather than expectation. Collaboration, she says, is one of the most powerful ways to experience this: "Looking for ways for your practice to shift and expand might involve a new perspective. I believe this can be most genuinely experienced by working with other artists – sharing ideas in the space where two or more creative practices meet."

Through careful observation and intuitive composition, Maggie explores how memory is formed and remembered. In balancing detail with abstraction, her works offer a deeply personal yet relatable reflection on place.

 

 

Explore more of RISE