33 Facts About Wendy Whiteley

Wendy Susan Whiteley is best known as the former wife of the Australian artist Brett Whiteley, and as the mother of their daughter, actress Arkie Whiteley.

Wendy Whiteley has become a notable cultural figure, particularly since her ex-husband's death in 1992.

Wendy Whiteley played an important role in the establishment of the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills, New South Wales which is owned and managed as an art museum by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Wendy Whiteley is known for the restoration and landscaping of derelict railway land in Lavender Bay, Sydney, which she turned into a "magic garden" and where her ex-husband Brett and daughter Arkie Whiteley's ashes were scattered.

Wendy Whiteley Susan Julius was born in Sydney in 1941, the elder of two daughters.

Wendy Whiteley's great-grandfather was Charles Yelverton O'Connor, engineer for Fremantle Harbour and the Kalgoorlie Pipeline, who committed suicide ten months before the pipeline was opened.

Wendy Whiteley's grandfather was Sir George Julius, the inventor of the totalisator and co-founder of the CSIRO.

When Wendy Whiteley was about 12, she was devastated to read in the newspapers that her father had been sent to prison for eight years for burglary.

Wendy Whiteley attended Lindfield Public School and Hornsby Girls' High School.

Wendy Whiteley won art awards and a David Jones Drawing Prize, which defrayed the costs of her formal studies at East Sydney Technical College.

Wendy Whiteley took Wendy along to a class, where her drawing proved to be better than his.

Wendy Whiteley was still living with his father Clem Whiteley, and Wendy moved in; she went to work for Clem's interior design business.

Wendy Whiteley wanted to take Wendy with him, but Clem refused to supply the necessary money; there were quarrels, which resulted in Wendy moving out of the house.

Wendy Whiteley saw Brett off on the boat, and then started working 18 hours a day to earn the money to pay her own way to Europe.

Brett arrived in Italy in February 1960, and Wendy Whiteley reunited with him in Paris on 14 June.

Wendy and Brett's daughter Arkie Whiteley was born in London on 6 November 1964.

Brett Wendy Whiteley was working feverishly on his paintings, particularly The American Dream, becoming very stressed, and turning to alcohol for relief.

Wendy Whiteley called his bluff, and Brett took up with a woman named Constance Abernathy for a few weeks, but he returned to Wendy Whiteley after Constance fell down an elevator shaft and broke her teeth.

Brett had other occasional affairs during this time, and Wendy Whiteley herself had an affair with Michael Driscoll, whom they had met at the National Art School and who had become their long-time friend.

Wendy Whiteley refused to share the same house as Brett for fear of becoming trapped in heroin addiction once more, so Brett took up residence in his Surry Hills studio.

Brett Wendy Whiteley died of a heroin overdose in 1992, Janice Spencer died of a heroin overdose in 2000, and Arkie died of cancer in 2001.

Wendy Whiteley suppressed her own artistic ambitions to be a wife, mother and helpmeet.

Wendy Whiteley treated the garden like a giant painting, structuring, planting, pruning, moving things around, and letting nature do its work.

In 2009, Wendy Whiteley was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to the community through the establishment and maintenance of a public garden at Lavender Bay, and as a supporter of the visual arts".

Arkie Wendy Whiteley claimed that her father had hand-written a revised will after his divorce, leaving everything to her, but that the piece of paper was lost.

Sandra McGrath's 1979 book Brett Wendy Whiteley, dubbed The Blue Book' for its dust jacket featuring the painter's The Jacaranda Tree, was the first major text on the artist.

Spencer moved to Byron Bay and wrote The Last Five Years with Brett Wendy Whiteley, which was never published.

Wendy Whiteley died of a heroin overdose in Brisbane, Queensland in August 2000, aged 41.

Wendy Whiteley has become a well-known figure in Australia's artistic life.

Wendy Whiteley appears at gallery openings, as a judge at art competitions, gives talks about Brett Whiteley, arranges and curates exhibitions of his work, and presents winners of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship with their prizes, on behalf of the late benefactress, Brett's mother Beryl Whiteley OAM.

Wendy Whiteley was the subject of an ABC TV Australian Story program in 2004, and has had magazine articles written about her from time to time.

On 8 December 2008, Wendy Whiteley was Andrew Denton's final guest on ABC TV Enough Rope.

Wendy Whiteley was interviewed by Peter Thompson on ABC TV's Talking Heads on 10 August 2009.