1898 Leicester, England – 1983, Brisbane

Lilian Pedersen’s significance for Queensland art does not lie simply in the artworks she created. She also promoted the annual exhibitions of the Half Dozen Group of Artists, and established the LJ Harvey Memorial Prize for Drawing at the Queensland National Art Gallery in 1951. Further, in 1975, she endowed the Andrew and Lilian Pedersen Memorial Prizes for Printmaking, Small Sculpture and Drawing at the Queensland National Art Gallery. When she arrived in Brisbane in 1936, she undertook courses in art and pottery with LJ Harvey. Pedersen’s creative activities were a mixture of art and craft in the 1940s, were dominated by painting in the 1950s and returned predominantly to craft in the 1960s and 1970s.