Mary Tonkin

Mary Tonkin (b.1973) is a plein air painter who works in the bush she roamed as a child. Her parents grew cut flowers and bulbs and her sister continues to grow rare bulbs on this land at Kalorama, on Corhanwarrabul /  Mt Dandenong in the Dandenong Ranges. It is a lush, wet sclerophyll forest with tree fern gullies and bush dams along a spring fed creek, home to lyrebirds and platypus.

Tonkin completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at Monash University, travelled in Europe and studied briefly at the New York Studio School before completing a Masters degree back at Monash. She was a sessional lecturer in Drawing at Monash and has exhibited with Australian Galleries in Sydney and Melbourne for the past 21 years. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including state and regional galleries.