"I'll never forget the time I spent with Betty Churcher"

Like so many others I was saddened to hear that Betty Churcher, one of the most adored figures in the Australian art world, passed away yesterday.

Betty, known to many as ‘Betty Blockbuster’, for the work she did in bringing major art exhibitions to our national galleries, was a true trailblazer. She was the first ever female art gallery director appointed in Australia and a talented artist in her own right. As a woman and broke through many boundaries as one of the first to be appointed in a high profile and public role. I never knew her in her days running a major national gallery, our paths crossed toward the end of her life.

Last year I had the great privilege of accompanying Betty on her book tour. At 84 she had released Australian Notebooks, a follow-up to her previous book just a couple of years earlier. After decades in the public eye and having appeared in her own TV series for ABC, Betty was enjoying the process of writing books.

When we met at the hotel in Sydney, Betty was still recovering from back surgery, she was struggling with emphysema, although she seemed to manage it well, and her eyesight had already been failing her for some years. She could have easily agreed to a couple of interviews over the phone and perhaps a photo shoot from the comfort of her lovely home outside of Canberra. But in true Betty style she was determined to roll up her sleeves and do a full-blown book tour. Those of us in the business know what a grueling and tiring process this can be, being carted around to endless TV and radio interviews and bookstore and writers’ festival appearances, and in Betty’s case she was quite literally being carted around.

We used the wheelchair for the longer distances so she could conserve her energy for her interviews and public appearances. When she rose from her chair I was struck by this wonderful, stylish, sharp and articulate woman. She would come into her own. She would sit in front of that microphone in the radio studio or on stage at an event and feed her audiences with the most wonderful stories or her life and art and how the two intertwined. And for her the two really were entirely enmeshed. Even for those of us who don’t know much about art you couldn’t help but be struck by her wonderful stories, how this piece of art affected her, what it meant. Suddenly you would look at a Rembrandt in a whole new way.

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In between these events and commitments we would sit and talk about family, having children and her being a grandmother to her 7 grandchildren who she adored. With two young children of my own I just relished listening to stories about how she managed a family – four boys – and built a career for herself at a time when this was far from common, almost unheard of.

She talked candidly about her own mortality. As I accompanied her to her room and helped her with her luggage she laughed apologetically and said that the elderly really do take up a lot of resources and it’s not quite fair, “we should just move on”.

She would ask me about my family too and was so touched to hear that my young daughter loved painting and was showing quite a talent for it. I brushed it off, assuming that every little girl likes to paint and play arts and crafts. She on the other hand was serious about it. Encourage it, cherish it, she insisted.

I came home from that book tour a little weary and could imagine how utterly exhausted Betty must have been. And she was. She emailed when she got back to say that was it. No more events. She needed to rest.

It was only a couple of months later that she discovered one last old notebook she had completely forgotten about. Suddenly, there was another book project in the pipeline. She had been working on this up to her final days. The book will be published later this year. Betty won’t be touring this time but her charisma and her passion for art will continue to inspire and her wonderful books will grace our shelves for many years to come.