Caroline magerl biography

Cartoonist, painter and illustrator, was born in Germany in 1964. She migrated to Sydney with her parents, who built a yacht in their suburban backyard to sail the East coast of Australia, which they did for many years. In her 20s, Caroline visited NZ aboard another yacht and returned to Brisbane where she began work as a freelance illustrator. Entirely self-taught, her first published cartoons appeared in the Bulletin beginning her career as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator.

Married to Mark, Caroline resumed painting when pregnant with her daughter, Jennifer, in 1996. Her paintings, whose subjects range from nudes to boats, have been shown in two mixed shows in the UK – No9 The Gallery and Artspace 2000, Barn Galleries, Henley-on-Thames (arranged by her UK-based agent, Chele Simpson) – and at Commerford Gallery (Byron Bay) and Bundanoon Art Gallery. Since 1998 she has also worked as a commercial illustrator, freelancing for magazines, newspapers and companies in the UK, US and Australia. Her aim to illustrate children’s books was fulfilled when she illustrated Libby Hathorn’s Grandma’s Shoes in 2000.

ML has 2 pen-and-ink original cartoons from the 1994 Black and White Artists’ Stanleys: “I can’t do a thing with it…” and Figureheads (PXD 586/ MAGERL/7-8).

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007

Both her parents have worked within a creative field, exposing young Magerl to the arts from an early age. Her father was a yacht builder and musician, while her mother worked in retail, specialising in fashion. Two years after her birth, the family migrated to Australia, and settled on the fringes of suburban Sydney. In 1971, they set sail aboard the Rosa M, a yacht that her father had built in their backyard. They cruised the east coast of Australia for seven years; then, to her dismay, her father sold their floating home and relocated the family to a caravan, first on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and then in Brisbane. During this time her primary and secondary education was completed at 10 different schools. Then, at the age of 16, she left home to join another yacht crossing the Tasman Sea and reaching New Zealand. Upon her return to Australia, she found work as a cook while refining her self-taught artistry as a painter on the side.

In her twenties, Caroline Magerl began to receive recognition, as her cartoons and illustrations were published in international yachting magazines. Her drawings were informed by a darkly wry sense of humour, inspired from years of boating experience. She continued to work as a painter, illustrator and cartoonist, eventually gaining international success through her contributions to newspapers and magazines, in Australia, the United States and Europe, including among others, the

Caroline Magerl was born in a small German town near Frankfurt and came to Australia when she was just two. Soon after, in a suburban Sydney backyard, her parents built a yacht which became a home and way of life. Until Caroline was fourteen, the family sailed the east coast of Australia. At sixteen, Caroline joined another yacht, crossing the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. After the return voyage she worked as a cook, painting in her spare time.

In 2001, Caroline was the recipient of the Crichton Award for recognising new talent in the field of Australian children's book illustration for her first Picture Book Grandma's Shoes (written by Libby Hathorn). Since then she has gone on to become a May Gibbs Fellow and has presented at 'ArtPlay' Melbourne, Children's Book Week, the 'Voices on the Coast' Festival and others.

Caroline now works successfully as a fulltime artist, illustrator and printmaker and recently received a significant ASA children's picture book illustrators' grant to work on her latest book, Hasel and Rose both illustrated and written by Caroline. She has exhibited widely overseas and in Australia.

"I am fascinated by the unique combination of art and storytelling within the world of a picture book. It is my first love. As a German immigrant, it was the picture books sent by my grandmother that showed me the power which books have to connect people over distance and time.

I have worked in the visual arts for over thirty years, as a cartoonist, an illustrator, a painter and printmaker. Now, I am delighted to also share my experience of creating an entire picture book having both written and illustrated a text which is a story in and of itself.

Writers say that they have to sacrifice words to make room for the illustrator's contribution - excruciating for the writer...

From an illustrators perspective, my strength is an ability to generate endless bubbles of imagery… - very distracting when the writer in me is trying to