Wendy Whiteley's second gift: 'The time has come to give women a little attention'
Binns once recalled that the young women studying at East Sydney Tech weren’t as promising as some of the boys. Whiteley said it was a common idea in the late 1950s that women should be models or inspiration. Then, as it is now, NAS attracted a very large group of women for small studio-based model classes and intensive tutoring. It was at art school that Wendy was introduced to Brett Whiteley, who worked as a commercial artist for an advertising agency and attended the sketch club and life drawing classes at the Julian Ashton School of the Arts. Shortly after their meeting, Wendy ran away from home and moved into a flat in Kirribilli with a boyfriend to live the “bohemian life”. “I will sew this loose dress, and mine will be covered in paint. I will go barefoot and march through City Hall. It’s all harmless.” East Sydney Technical College in the 1960s at the site of Old Darlinghurst Goal before its name changed. Credit: National Art School From high school art is “the thing I lik