Shay Docking

Shay Docking was shortlisted for the Woollahra Council local history plaque scheme in 2013.  As a result, the Council has a very detailed biography on their website, link is here.  Shay was an important Australian artist and Cambridge Street resident.

Shay went to art school in Melbourne and lived in Newcastle, New Zealand and Paddington. She was a prolific artist and her works have found homes in many public institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of NSW, many regional galleries (notably the Newcastle Gallery) and in New Zealand.  Her work has been the subject of two books, "The Landscape as Metaphor" by Ursula Prunster and "Shay Docking Drawings" by Lou Klepac. A portrait of Shay Docking, painted by Margaret Ackland, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize for 1987.

Known primarily for her landscapes, Shay's paintings have a distinctive abstract feel.  The work on top is from the AGNSW collection, "Echidna Country" from 1963. Her drawings are more naturalistic, the drawing above depicts one of her favourite subjects, an angophora tree.  Again this is from the AGNSW, a 1975 work entitled "Angophoras and Hawkesbury".

Shay lived at 69 Cambridge Street.  With her husband Gil, the Docking's purchased the terrace in the 1960's and renovated it. They moved to New Zealand in 1965 for Gil's work as Head of the Auckland City Art Gallery, returning to Paddington in 1972 when Gil took up a position at the AGNSW. Shay was to remain in Paddington until her death in 1998.  The above image is a pencil sketch from 1972 entitled "View from Studio Window at Paddington".  Shay's studio was the front room on the first floor (what would be the master bedroom in a standard terrace layout).  Given the outlook of the Docking's terrace I would guess that the roofs pictured are maybe 46 & 48 Cambridge Street.  One giveaway that you are in an artist's house is the strange slit in the roof of the entrance corridor.  Gil Docking cut a long trapdoor in the studio above, about 2m by 10cm so that larger works could be merely dropped through the floor and out the front door rather than being carried down the stairs.