The disease and several operations including a hysterectomy left her unable to bear children and deaf in her right ear; after her diagnosis, Quinn deserted her in England.

[4] In the 1930s, Reed studied art under George Bell in his Bourke Street Studio School in Melbourne.

[5] In 1934, the Reeds purchased a former dairy farm on the Yarra River at Heidelberg, Victoria, now Bulleen, which became known as "Heide".

These artists were known as the Heide Circle and included Sidney Nolan, husband-and-wife couple Sam Atyeo and Moya Dyring, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester (who married in 1941), John Perceval, and Laurence Hope, among others.

[5] Art historian Janine Burke has suggested Nolan and Sunday Reed had a close collaborative relationship.

According to Burke, Reed helped Nolan find his artistic voice and in the process developed from a studio assistant to painting sections of the works herself, in particular the red and white squares in The Trial.

[citation needed] Nolan left his Kelly paintings at Heide when he departed under emotionally charged circumstances in 1947.

Reed returned 284 of his other paintings and drawings, but she refused to give up the 25 remaining Kellys, partly because she saw the works as fundamental to the proposed Heide Museum of Modern Art.

In the 1960s, Sweeney Reed invited his circle of artist and poet friends to Heide; these included Les Kossatz, Allan Mitelman, Shelton Lea and Russell Deeble.

According to David Rainey, the relationship between Sunday Reed and Sidney Nolan is the basis for Alex Miller's 2011 novel Autumn Laing.

[13] Rainey's 2014 play The Ménage at Soria Moria is a fictitious performance piece exploring the relationship between the Reeds and Nolan, both during Heide's heyday in the 1940s and in the years after.