I used to live in a three storey stone terrace house on the hill in Newcastle, overlooking the harbour. It was built in 1888. At the time when my friends and I lived there it was owned by an amazing artist named Margaret Olley . I met her a couple of times. We had to call her Miss Olley and not Margaret.

The story goes that when she was a lot younger she won a major art prize and bought rental properties over the years which meant she could continue to paint her beautiful art without having to worry about her living expenses.

I think this painting is of the
basement room in another terrace house two doors down. The room was similar to my bedroom at the house we lived in - although mine looked a lot less fancy - but Miss Olley lived in the basement and the room shown in the painting for a long time and then she moved to Sydney.

This was the view from the top back room of either our terrace house or the one Miss Olley lived in:

Newcastle Harbour