Ninette Dutton OAM (1923-2007), artist, broadcaster and author, was born in Adelaide and educated at Creveen and Woodlands before studying Social Science at the University of Adelaide. In 1944 she married the writer Geoffrey Dutton. They lived at Anlaby, the Duttons' family property at Kapunda, and later Piers Hill, a property near Angaston, before they separated in the early 1980s. During the 1950s she worked in Oxford and studied at the Ruskin School of Art and the couple travelled extensively and adventurously through Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In the 1960s she learned enamelling in Kansas; her ensuing enamel works were widely collected, and she wrote Beautiful Art of Enamelling in 1966. In early 1968 she saved the life of Patrick White, a dear friend, by holding on to his arm when he fell into a blowhole on Kangaroo Island. Over the 1970s, 80s and 90s she published books and delivered radio programmes on cooking, flowers, gardening and the seasons, and for some years she wrote a column titled 'The Passionate Gardener' in the Advertiser, Adelaide. Her most recent book is Home (2000), which describes her decision to move from South Australia to Canberra.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
© Elizabeth Mifsud/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portrait of Ninette Dutton by Bette Mifsud.
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