{Throughout January, we’re looking back at all the posts our awesome columnists wrote for us in 2012, before our team of some new and some returning contributors start blogging in February.} Julia Ritson is an artist, whose love and respect for those who came before her is obvious through her thoughtful, informative posts for Women from History. Textile artists, painters, boundary-pushers, trailblazers. Julia has been a fantastic tour guide through the shining stars of yesteryear. Thanks, Julia! x tess

Thinking Bridget Riley The 80-year-old Bridget Riley has been on my mind a lot lately. Read more...

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Distinct Delaunay There are a myriad of ways to view Sonia Delaunay. Painter, colourist, textile designer, mother, and wife, Delaunay returns to Paris in the middle of a world-wide shift. The new jazzy world of the 1920s. In response to the cultural change in the air, there was a whole lot of new women stereotyping going on. Read more...

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Original Gray Eileen Gray (1879-1976) was born in Ireland but lived in Paris. A thoroughly modern lady designing furniture while surrounded by the world of French couture. Read more...

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Tauber-Arp’s Dance Sophie Tauber-Arp’s work was all about form and colour, rhythm and balance. Trained as a textile designer, Tauber-Arp works the grid lovingly. The warp and the weft. The abundant stitches marching up, down, left, right create a beautifully rhythmical work. Read more...

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Maude’s Coo-ee! Maude Wordsworth James was completely obsessed by the word ‘coo-ee.’ Read more...

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Girl Painter “Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook.” That’s the 1939 headline for a story about Nora Heysen in The Australian Women’s Weekly. It just so happened she was the first female artist to win the Archibald prize – just as well she could cook. Read more...

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Cool Albers “I find that a craft gives somebody who is trying to find their way a kind of discipline.” Read more...

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Non Objective Grace Crowley Just before Australian artist Grace Crowley died in 1979, she bequeathed the few remaining paintings in her possession to Australian art museums and her papers to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Read more...

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Grace Cossington Smith Sydney born Grace Cossington Smith painted this work in 1915 and lucky for us Daniel Thomas convinced the Art Gallery of NSW to add it to their collection in 1960. It was from one of her first exhibitions. She was 23 years old. Read more...

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Radiant Elizabeth Taylor Elizabeth Taylor was a real dame. Her penchant for shops in the arcades of swish hotels led to her developing a breathtaking collection of jewellery. Read more...

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Ebullient Eszter Haraszty When flicking through the mammoth Knoll Textiles‘ catalogue, published by Yale University Press, Eszter Haraszty’s work really stands out for me. Read more...