Born in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Daughter of George Frederick Harris
and Rosetta Elizabeth (Lucas) Harris
Sister of
Cromwell George Harris and Carl Francis Harris
Wife of
Bruce W F Pratt
— married
16 Jul 1928 in Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia
[children unknown]
Died
at age 88
in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Pixie O'Harris 
Biography
Pixie (Harris) Pratt MBE is Notable.
Pixie (Harris) Pratt MBE migrated from Wales to Australia in 1920.
Author Walter McVitty said the reason for her success, is her warmth of personality and her abiding faith in life, and the goodness of human friendships, which shines through her words and pictures,a single lifetime of devotion to a noble craft, an act of faith the making of beautiful books for children.
Pixie O'Harris MBE was a Australian painter, writer, children's book illustrator broadcaster, cartoonist, designer of book plates, sheet music covers and stationery, she also painted children's hospital wards with fairy murals.
Rhona Olive O'Harris was born in [1]Cardiff, Wales in 1903. Her father was George Frederick Harris, a portrait painter and chairman of the Royal Art Society Cardiff, and Rosetta Elizabeth Harris née Lucas.
Rhona was only 13 years old when she started writing and a year later when she was 14 years old her paintings were shown at the Royal Art Society of South Wales , she attended the Sully village school and Allensbank Girl's School in Cardiff. In 1920 Pixie and her family migrated to Australia on the Demosthenes which landed in Perth .Passengers on the way to Australia, gave her the name, The Welsh Pixie, she disliked her name Rhona so much , she started using the name Pixie , a suitable name considering her books and illustrations later in life mostly had a fairy theme ,in 1921 the Harris family moved to Sydney .
Pixie's first job was in Sydney with the printing and publishing company John Sands Limited, as a commercial artist , while working for John Sands Limited the company sent her to study at the Julian Ashton Art School,Julian Ashton was a noted Australian artist and art teacher his school was based in Sydney.Pixie changed her last name from Harris to O'Harris after she sold a collection of verses and illustrations to the Sydney Mail magazine, and a printer at the Sydney Morning Herald added an apostrophe to her second initial, from that time on she was known as Pixie O'Harris.
Between 1921 - 1924 Pixie was working as a freelance illustrator for the, Triad , Bulletin, Green Room, John Sands printers and the Sydney Mail .Pixie did first book illustration for Maud Renner Liston a South Australian writer the book was called Cinderella's Party,in addition to illustrating and writing her own books Pixie also did illustrations for other Authors including [2] Ruth Bedford , C. J. Dennis and Frank Dalby Davison . It was while Pixie O'Harris was living in Adelaide, South Australia in 1925 that she painted the illustrations for her Pixie O'Harris Fairy Book.
Copy of 1925 Book Published Rigby Limited Imperial Place Adelaide 1982
Pixie O'Harris married Bruce Pratt in 1928,he was wool buyer and journalist, he became the editor of the Australian Encyclopaedia in 1958 ,while in hospital having her three daughters, she found the hospital walls boring so she decided to paint [3] fairy style murals to brighten up the hospital walls for the children who had to spend so much time in hospital, [4]one of her nursery pictures was in the princesses' nursery in Buckingham Palace ,Pixie edited Humour from 1936 to 1939.
From 1939 to the late 1980's Pixie O'Harris painted murals on more than 50 children's hospital walls and schools . She was awarded the Queen's Coronation Medal, the Queen's Jubilee Medal and the [5] MBE.It was Pixie that convinced her friend Miles Franklin , to write Childhood at Brindabella. In the 1960s Pixie O'Harris began to paint Landscape and portraits she had many exhibitions over the next thirty years. [6]Every year during the 1970s her books were published in full colour for children . She became patron to Sydney’s Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in 1977.[7]In 1983 Pixie O'Harris wrote her autobiography titled Was it Yesterday Also in 1983 [8] she illustrated a reprint of Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham .[9]In 1994 the Children's Publishing Committee of the Australian Publishers' Association established the Pixie O'Harris Award ,which honours one of Australia's leading illustrators of children's books, Rhona Olive Harris, it is awarded for distinguished and dedicated service to the development and reputation of Australian children's books.Pixie illustrated the 125th Birthday edition of Alice's Aventures in Wonderland written originally in 1865 by Lewis Carroll
Pixie O'Harris was only 13 years old when she started writing and for the rest of her life she wrote and illustrated her own books ,she also illustrated books for other authors she [10]painted murals for childrens hospitals ,children from so many different decades grew up with Pixie O'Harris's lovely fairy illustrations and stories, Pixie O'Harris died in 1991 she was 87 years old. [11]
Pixie O'Harris Fairy Drawings
Sources
- ↑ Family Search - Citing this Record England and Wales, Birth Registration Index, 1837-1920", index, FamilySearch, Rona Olive Harris, 1903.
- ↑ Google Books - The Intimate Archive - Journeys Through Private Papers By Maryanne Dever, Ann Vickery, Sally Newman
- ↑ Google Newspapers - The Sydney Morning Herald - Oct 21, 1954 Hospital Mural set to Poem Pixie O'Harris chooses a poem by her late friend Miles Franklin as a theme for the mural she is to paint in the childrens ward of the Grafton Hospital
- ↑ Powerhouse Museum - Powerhouse Museum Collection
- ↑ Its a Honour - Name - O'HARRIS, Pixie , Post-nominal - MBE(C)Award - The Order of the British Empire - Member (Civil) ,Date granted - 01 January 1976,Citation - Arts (Mrs Bruce Pratt)
- ↑ State Library New South Wales - Series 12: Museum of Australian Childhood, ca. 1864-1992: Pixie O'Harris to Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
- ↑ Trove Digitised Newspapers - Pixies life and art Was it Yesterday autobiography Pixie O'Harris -The Canberra Times Saturday 17 September 1983
- ↑ Kenneth Grahame Society - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Illustrations by Pixie O'Harris
- ↑ LA TROBE University Bendigo - The Pixie O'Harris Award Pixie O'Harris produced a large number of picture books of her own, illustrated the work of other writers and was a friend and mentor to many authors and illustrators.
- ↑ abc.net.au - Local Treasures - Pixie O'Harris mural , By Ann Hardy - Hunter Region National Trust , volunteers at Grossmann House in Maitland were preparing for an open day when they stumbled across an artwork by renowned Australian artist Pixie O'Harris It had been hidden away for some time, it is likely to have been displayed in a health or educational setting
- ↑ Ryerson Index accessed 5 Feb 2023. Death notice: Rona Olive PRATT on Sunday, 17 Nov 1991 late of Lindfield. Published Tue, 19 Nov 1991 in the Sydney Morning Herald.
See also
- Wikipedia - Pixie O'Harris MBE
- National Portrait Gallery - Portrait of Pixie O'Harris c.1951
- Google Newspapers - The Shawinigan Standard - Nov 4, 1953 Woman in the News Australian Pixie Harris spinner of fairy tales.
- The Gazette pdf - Ist January 1976 M.B.E To be Ordinary Members of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order.
- Australian Childrens Literature.com - Pixie O'Harris 1903 - 1991
- Austlit.edu.au - Biography - Pixie O'Harris The daughter of a noted portrait painter, George F. Harris, a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy.
- Trove Digitised Newspapers - Pixie O'Harris Hospital Mural set to poem by Miles Franklin - The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 21 October 1954.
- ICS.com.au - pixie O'Harris mural bathurst hospital - ICS was engaged by John Holland Constructions to relocate an original Pixie O'Harris mural from a building at Bathurst Hospital which was to be demolished as part of the redevelopment of the site.
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Yea! Pixie
David N. Talley