The late Mrs Dunnet, who painted under the name Joy Beardmore, died in St George Hospital, Sydney, on November 28, from injuries sustained in a fall at the workshop.

Joy Beardmore's career spanned more than 45 years and her talents extended across portraiture, landscape, figurative art and other styles. She exhibited in Australia and overseas and worked prolifically in a full gamut of media to create many thousands of works.

Ms Beardmore graduated from East Sydney Technical College. Her five years of formal training were to stand her in good stead. She was a nine-times finalist in the Portia Geach Prize, and won many awards.

She was married to Australian artist Ross Davis, until his death in 2001. For 16 years the couple and their blended family of six children lived for six months of the year in the picturesque village of Fornalutz, Mallorca, Spain, and six months in Australia at Durras and, later, Dungog.

The couple's art workshops both in Spain and Australia drew artists from around the world.

Ms Beardmore's portraits included large works featuring personalities such as Ruth Cracknell, Hayes Gordon, and Denise Roberts. She was an entrant in The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and in 2005 was among a selected group of Australian artists to participate in the Macquarie International Portrait Artists Australia Exhibition in Washington DC.

In 2005, she was reunited at Dungog with a friend she had met on a bushwalk near Bathurst in 1961. She was to marry geologist Dr Doug Dunnet three years later, and the couple settled in Toronto.

The pair enjoyed many overseas trips and camping excursions in the Australian bush. The ebullient, creative and adventurous Joy maintained an artist's diary of every trip, complete with exquisitely hand-written text and detailed illustrations and water colours of the sights and people she met.

The sudden loss of Joy Beardmore has not only been deeply felt by those who knew, loved and respected her, but Australia has lost a powerful and insightful artistic talent.