Catherine Maud Womersley was born at Manilla, New South Wales on 21 September 1886. Her father died when she was quite young and, as her mother remarried, she was raised by her paternal grandmother in Melbourne. She studied drawing and watercolours from early childhood. She married Jack O’Reilly in Sydney about 1920 and came to live in Brisbane where he was superintending engineer for the GPO. She became a student of L.J. Harvey at the Central Technical College and exhibited her pottery and was awarded several prizes at the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association 1923-5. She was included in the Central Technical College display of pottery at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 and it was the only year she exhibited with the Arts and Crafts Society of Brisbane where “. . . handsome pieces beautifully modelled in the 'Louis’ style” were noted.

In 1925 she and her husband travelled to England where she enrolled at the Royal College of Arts (April-July) and later studied ceramics at the London County Council School of Art Studies where she learned to throw. She was keenly interested in studying historic ceramics in London museums, especially Chinese ceramics of the Ming and Sung eras. The ceramics she produced there (she had 3 cwt of Queensland clay sent over to her) had simple profiles and sometimes vestigial dragon handles but principally relied on superb glazes for effect. In an article titled “Woman’s realm” in The West Australian on 23 April 1936 she remarked “I have always concentrated on form and proportion, the use of subtle colourings and high quality glazes particularly suited for each piece of work rather than the more modern style of decoration.”

At this time she made a plaque which incorporated the signatures of the Australian Test Cricket team for 1926. It was displayed at the Queensland Agent General, London, together with other items of her pottery.

She exhibited a collection of her pottery in the Women’s Artists Society, London in 1926 and later the same year she exhibited a model of a kookaburra at the Royal Academy (no. 1445). These items were also exhibited in Brisbane at the annual Queensland Art Society exhibition in November. She also exhibited a collection of pottery in the Queensland Art Society’s 1927 April exhibition. This appears to have been the end of her pottery career.

The couple returned to live in Melbourne and then in 1936 to Perth where a group of her pottery and painting was one of the main features of the first exhibition of the West Australian Women Painters and Applied Arts Society. She was also a member of the committee. The couple went to England as part of a round world trip in 1937. After the death of her husband three years later she returned to live in Brisbane where she died on 13 September 1971. She had made some items of poker work in earlier years but in her last years she restricted herself to watercolours.

Queensland Art Gallery: Research Curator, Queensland Heritage

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R. Note: Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery

Date written:

2003

Last updated:

2011