Peg Campbell is a wildlife artist living in Australia. She specializes in painting watercolors of birds. Records about Campbell indicate she sold a painting of a pair of black-headed herons in Australia the mid-1970s. It is possible that she has been a member of the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society. There is a record that she exhibited at the Holdsworth Galleries in Woollahra in 1986.
The painting of an Australian Robin was donated to the Fine Arts Collection in 1997 by collector and benefactor, William A. Heintz and so is part of the William A. Heintz named collection. Heintz received the painting as a gift from a friend in 1975, when the friend purchased it from a gallery in Chicago. At that time, Heintz was told Campbell “was a housewife who could return to her avocation when her children no longer demanded so much of her time.” He additionally noted that few of her paintings were for sale in the United States.
The Australian Robin which is the subject of this watercolor, is also known as a “Red-capped Robin” and is a species of “Old World Flycatcher” (The Encyclopedia of Birds, New York: Facts on File, 1985). It was painted on gray paper.
Ref: Craig, Edward D. Australian Art Auction Records, 1975-1978. Ultimo, New South Wales: Mathews/Hutchinson, 1978; Fine Arts Collection files
