Shay Docking (1928–1998) was an Australian artist who specialised in landscape drawing.

Early life

Docking was born in

Warrnambool Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...

Victoria in 1928, and was the youngest of seven children. Her father was a clergyman and her mother a musician. In 1939 she moved to Boort.

Work

Docking was a

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

. Most of her work was inspired by the western district of Victoria where she grew up. While in New Zealand she was inspired by the volcanoes. She produced a series of paintings inspired by the landscape of

Ku-ring-gai Chase Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, ...

as well as a series inspired by

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

. Docking featured in an ''Exhibition of Paintings by Leading Victorian and Interstate Artists'' at the Australian Galleries, Melbourne in 1957. In 1960 she exhibited her work in group exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and in 1961 she held her first solo shows in the Argus Gallery and the Blaxland Gallery. ''From Tower Hill to One Tree Hill; Two Decades of Painting by Shay Docking'' opened at the Warrnambool Art Gallery and travelled to six other regional galleries in 1975. In 1982 the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

organised a travelling art exhibition of her work ''The Sydney Harbour Bridge 1932–1982''. ''Hill and other Volcanoes'', a survey exhibition was held at Warrnambool,

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

and

Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508. Indigenous Peopl ...

Galleries in 1987. A major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

exhibition of Docking's work titled ''Song of Earth and Sea: Shay Docking 1955–1996'' was held at Macquarie University Art Gallery in 2011 and at the Maitland Regional Gallery in 2013. An exhibition of her work drawn from the

Newcastle Art Gallery The Newcastle Art Gallery (formerly the Newcastle City Art Gallery, Newcastle Region Art Gallery) is a large, public art museum in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. History Founded in 1945 with an art collection consisting of 123 works ...

was held in 2012. Examples of Docking's work are displayed at the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

in Canberra, the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, and the

Personal life

She studied at

Swinburne Technical College Swinburne University of Technology (often simply called Swinburne) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne to serve those without access ...

between 1947 and 1950. Before finishing her training she accepted a freelance position illustrating myths and legends for the Victorian Education Department's visual education section. In 1952 she married Gil Docking. In 1953 she became the Education Officer at the

. Between 1954 and 1955 she studied under Alan Sunner at the

National Gallery School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...

in Melbourne. In 1958 she moved to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. In 1965 she moved to New Zealand. In 1965 she purchased 69 Cambridge Street, Paddington. She returned to the terraced house in 1971 which became her studio. In 2015 the house was gifted to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1979 she was awarded the Gold Coast Purchase Award and Trustees Invitation Purchase Award from the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Gallery ...

. In 1987 artist Margaret Ackland painted a portrait of Docking for the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

and was a finalist. The portrait won the

Portia Geach Memorial Award The Portia Geach Memorial Award is an annual prize for Australian female portraitists. The Award was established in 1961 as a testamentary trust by Florence Kate Geach, sister of Australian painter Portia Geach, with an initial endowment of AU£ ...

the following year. She died in 1998 in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

. In 2019 she received a memorial plaque from

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. W ...

Council.

Publications about her

The monograph, ''Shay Docking: The Landscape as Metaphor'' with text by Ursula Prunster in association with the artist, published by AH & AW Reed, Sydney published in 1983 ''Shay Docking Drawings'' by Lou Klepac, with an essay by Hendrik Kolenberg published by The Beagle Press, Sydney (1990) In 1987 she wrote ''Tower hill and other volcanoes'' to accompany a survey exhibition Docking, Gil with additions by Michael Gunn covering 1970–90. “Shay Docking” in Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting, David Bateman Ltd., New Zealand, 1990, Docking, Gil. ''A conversation with Shay Docking'', Ascent, Journal of the Arts in New Zealand, Vol 1, No. 2, Caxton Press, Christchurch 1968: 20–29 Simpson, Andrew. ''A journey into the textured lands of Shay Docking'' in Rhonda Davis and Leonard Janiszewski (eds.), Song of Earth and Sea: Shay Docking 1955–1996, Macquarie University, Sydney 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Docking, Shay 1928 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Australian women artists Landscape painters People from Warrnambool Swinburne University of Technology alumni 20th-century Australian painters Modern painters