Irena Sibley

Irena Sibley (16 June 1943 – 29 March 2009), born Irena Justina Pauliukonis, was an Australian artist, writer, illustrator of children's books, and art teacher.

Her mother Anele and father Zenonas Pauliukonis fled communist-occupied Lithuania in 1946 when Irena was a baby. The Pauliukonis family immigrated to Australia via refugee camps in Freiburg, Germany, where her brother Vidas was born, and Naples, Italy. The family arrived in Sydney, Australia on 31 December 1949 and settled in Bathurst, before establishing their family home in Cabramatta in Sydney’s western suburbs.

Irena Pauliukonis married artist Andrew Sibley in 1967 and had two sons, Benedict and Jonathan. The Sibley family lived in Albert Park, where she was involved in the Save Albert Park protest movement against the Australian Grand Prix in the 1990s.

The Sibley family established a property and artists' studio in Flowerdale, Victoria in the 1970s and 1980s, with spectacular terraced gardens which have been featured in House & Garden magazine. The property was successfully defended by the family from the Black Saturday (2009) bushfires, with only minor damage sustained, due largely to a sprinkler system and the strategic planting of fire retardant vegetation.

Irena Sibley graduated in Fine Arts in 1964 from the National Art School in Sydney. In 1967, she established the art department at Xavier preparatory school) in Melbourne, and taught there on and off for 13 years. She was an art teacher at Firbank Girls' Grammar School from 1982 to 2007.

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