At the age of 90, Janet Dawson's inner "second person" is still telling her how her art should look, even if it was something she painted 60 years ago.
But in the first state art gallery retrospective of her eclectic work, Dawson says she wants people visiting the Art Gallery of NSW to see the influence of the changing natural world over her six-decade career.
"(People should see) the oddity and the amazing delicacy, and hardness and softness of the natural world," Dawson told AAP.
"Nature is so astonishing that it actually creates (the art)."
Dawson is perhaps most well-known for being the third woman to win the Archibald Prize in portraiture for her painting of her husband Michael Boddy.
The Sydney exhibition titled Far Away, So Close doesn't feature the award-winning portrait, instead focusing on the unique blend of styles Dawson explored in her career.
"I try to get that feeling of things that have just come together to stay but will be all going off again shortly," she said.
Regarded as an artistic rule breaker for her refusal to adhere to the limits of particular styles, the exhibition aims to highlight her immense contribution to Australian art.
"She was a pioneer of a new form of abstraction in the 1960s but she's equally a pioneer of a form of realism," curator Denise Mimmocchi told AAP.
"We don't have a single narrative in Australian art, she's a perfect example of that."
In a career starting in Melbourne, before moving to London, Italy, Paris, Sydney, country NSW and her current home in Ocean Grove, Victoria, Dawson has always been motivated by a passion for keeping busy.
"I just loved the idea of being a working person," she said.
The exhibition is laid out chronologically, starting with a self-portrait of an 18-year-old Dawson and moving through four rooms to finish with work as recent as 2018.
The free retrospective exhibition opens on Saturday and runs until January 18.
