Growing up, first in Victoria's Warranambool District (an extinct-volcanic region of grassy plains with rounded cones and lakes) then later in the semi-arid prairie country of Northern Victoria and moving to Aotearoa New Zealand between 1968 - 1971, Shay Docking developed a strong sense of empathy with certain kinds of evolutionary landscapes. Returning to Australia she sought out these mysterious natural formations in the Australian landscape and bush.
Ursula Prunster, in her 1998 book, Shay Docking, The Landscape as Metaphor, wrote ..
'This mystique of landscape has always been a powerful motivation for her art...
Isolated tree forms, volcanoes with womb-like craters, sheer cliffs rising from the sea or plains, and rock formations - these contribute the core of her iconography as a landscape painter. Shay Docking's unique exploration of the volcano theme is especially intriguing..."
Throughout her career Docking exhibited regularly, holding more than forty solo exhibitions.
Biographical references:
Rhonda Davis and Leonard Janiszewski, Song of Earth and Sea: Shay Docking 1955 - 1996, Maqquarie University, Sydney 2011 McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 383
Germaine, Max. Artists and Galleries of Australia, Volumes 1 & 2, Third Edition. Craftsman Press, Sydney, 1990. Page 179 Germaine, Max. A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991. Page 118
Gil Docking, with additions by Michael Gunn covering 1970-90. Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting, David Bateman Ltd., New Zealand, 1990 Page 192 Ursula Prunster, Shay Docking, the Landscape as Metaphor, AH & AW Reed Pty Ltd, New South Wales, 1983
McGahey, Kate. The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists Painters Printmakers Sculptors, Gilt Edge Publishing, Wellington, New Zealand, 2000. Page 66 Lou Klepac. With an essay by H. Kolenberg Shay Docking Drawings.The Beagle Press,Sydney 1990.
Public Collections:
Including: National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory; National Gallery of Victoria; Queensland Art Gallery; Queen Victoria Art Gallery and Museum; Tasmanian Art Gallery and Museum, plus many Regional Galleries and University collections throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Shay Docking was born in 1928 at Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, lived in Aotearoa, New Zealand from about 1965/68, where she became deeply involved with working on images of the Pacific and volcanic South Sea islands. These themes consolidated in a number of solo exhibitions. She returned to Australia in 1971, settling in Sydney.
She is known primarily as a landscape artist and images of the environs of Sydney, the Hawkesbury River and the angophora tree are recurrent in her works.
David Hansen described her pencil drawings as "characterised by
restraint, in their modest scale and their focused attention on subtle tonal transitions.
Recalling the work of English (St Ives) modernists, these ... are explorations of well loved
familiar places, particularly the Western District and Sydney Harbour. Edges are
critical: around each central motif the negative space of earth or air or sea hums whitely."The Age, May 12, 2006
Biographical References:
Rhonda Davis and Leonard Janiszewski, Song of Earth and Sea: Shay Docking 1955 - 1996, Maqquarie University, Sydney 2011
McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 383
Germaine, Max. Artists and Galleries of Australia, Volumes 1 & 2, Third Edition. Craftsman Press, Sydney, 1990. Page 179 Germaine, Max. A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991. Page 118
Gil Docking, with additions by Michael Gunn covering 1970-90. Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting, David Bateman Ltd., New Zealand, 1990 Page 192 Ursula Prunster, Shay Docking, the Landscape as Metaphor, AH & AW Reed Pty Ltd, New South Wales, 1983
McGahey, Kate. The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists Painters Printmakers Sculptors, Gilt Edge Publishing, Wellington, New Zealand, 2000. Page 66 Lou Klepac. With an essay by H. Kolenberg Shay Docking Drawings.The Beagle Press,Sydney 1990 Shay Docking : Tower Hill and other volcanoes : a survey, edited by David Hansen and Gil Docking,
Warrnambool Art Gallery Victoria 1987
Other:
Shay Docking, Hutchings, P. AE, Art and Australia, Article: 1975.
Shay Docking.(Australian artist), Prunster, Ursula, Art and Australia, Article: 1999
Shay Docking interviewed by Hazel de Berg for the Hazel de Berg collection, 1962, Women painters - Australia - Interviews. Papers of Shay Docking, 1928-1998, Art Gallery NSW Library.
Biographical cuttings on Shay Docking, artist, from newspapers/journals Published: to1990, National Library, Australia. Shay Docking : Australian Art and Artists file.
Public Collections:
Including: National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory; National Gallery of Victoria; Queensland Art Gallery; Queen Victoria Art Gallery and Museum; Tasmanian Art Gallery and Museum, plus many Regional Galleries and University collections throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Private Collections:
Including: Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, USA,
