Dame Elisabeth Murdoch

Sue Walker: Well, Dame Elisabeth has been a most wonderful friend and supporter to me, and I was the Founding Director of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, which began in 1976. And Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was of course the driving force behind the establishment of the workshop.

Christopher Pyett: I first met Dame Elisabeth at the Tapestry Workshop. She enjoys a sense of humour. She enjoys a joke, she enjoys being teased. We get on well like that.

Sue Walker: Well, when Andrew Sayers approached us with the idea of weaving a portrait of Dame Elisabeth, I thought it was enormously exciting. Chris Pyett seemed a very suitable person to be involved in this project. He spent time with her in the garden.

Christopher Pyett: We took a series of photographs totalling about 55, 60. The first series were of her wearing blue. A lot of her character is expressed in her clothing, and the blue she always wears for a formal occasion. I got her to change that, because it never really did her … you know, none of them look comfortable, do they? But when we got her into a patterned dress it fitted much better.

Sue Walker: Well, Dame Elisabeth is one of those exceptional people who have imagination and vision, huge human warmth, and then the capacity to follow that up, not only financially but also with their own personal encouragement.

Christopher Pyett: When I look at the portrait, and look at her eyes, I can just hear her saying to herself, “What on earth do they want a portrait of me for?”

Sue Walker: Her warmth, her enthusiasm, her great joy and delight in everything we did, has just been one of the greatest things in my whole professional life.

Christopher Pyett: Her contribution to the life of Australia has been absolutely immense, so I think there should be a tapestry portrait of her all over Australia!