Margaret Preston, Australia's best-loved woman painter, was a 'red-headed little firebrand.' In argument, she was obstinate: 'Everything sparkled and shook when she was around.' In practice, experimental: still-life was the 'laboratory table on which aesthetic problems can be isolated.' In theory, direct and uncompromising: 'Be Aboriginal.' Elizabeth Butel traces Preston's struggle for artistic and financial independence, as well as her travels throughout the world and Aboriginal Australia in search of inspiration for her art. Her conclusions - that Margaret Preston's vision is as fresh today as it was sixty years ago.