Wendy Whiteley's Window

Wendy Whiteley is best known as the "goddess muse" and wife of the artist Brett Whiteley. An artist in her own right, any thoughts of her own artistic career had long taken second place to her roles as a wife, mother, artist's model, muse, critic and stylist of aesthetic domestic and studio environments. After Brett's death she found a unique outlet for her creativity.

At considerable personal expense, Wendy started to clean up and landscape a large patch of derelict land adjacent to her home in Lavender Bay, owned by the NSW Rail Corporation. It was choked by weeds and overgrown with lantanas, and strewn with old train carriages, abandoned refrigerators, rotting mattresses and broken bottles. Over the last 15 years, Wendy treated the garden like a giant painting, structuring, planting, pruning, moving things around, and letting nature work its own magic.

Here's a woman after my own heart. Beautifying and protecting public spaces is a bit of a passion of mine, and I'm amazed it's taken me this long to get here.

Onya Wendy - you're an inspiration.