Mining Town, drawing, 1966 Shay Docking, 1928-1998

The recently opened exhibition Gallery 91 at the Aigantighe Art Gallery, which delves into the history of Christchurch’s first dealer gallery, opened by Barbara and Andre Brooke, is a great opportunity to explore works from the Aigantighe’s rich collection.

One of the works included in the exhibition is a drawing by artist Shay Docking (1928-1998), entitled Mining Town, drawn in 1966.

Shay Docking was born in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia in 1928 and had a deeply religious upbringing. From an early age she had a fascination with geology and for exploring what lay beneath the skin of the land.

One of her favourite books was ‘‘Physiography of Victoria’’ by the Australian geologist Edwin Sherbon Hills (1906-1986).

This book accompanied her on countless geological excursions throughout Victoria during her early years. This fascination with geology, the formation of the land and the scars on the land formed over millions of years, led Docking to become a landscape painter.

Shay Docking studied at the Swinburne Technical College from 1947–50, and at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1954–55 under Alan Sumner (1911-1994).

In 1952 she married Gil Docking (1919-2015), a veteran of World War II, who had just graduated from Arts at Melbourne University.

In 1965 the couple made the move across the Tasman to Auckland, where Gil Docking was appointed the director of the Auckland City Art Gallery and was to oversee a number of major projects.

The landscape around Auckland, with its abundance of dormant volcanoes, was very inspiring for Docking and she produced a large body of paintings and drawings of the region. Docking saw volcanoes as metaphors for the cyclical renewal of life - with the land violently formed, then crumbling and decaying to form rich soil for new life to grow.

‘‘Geology allows me to understand my instructive and intuitive identification with the ancient past of the earth, our home – which in the deep recesses of the mind is the place the human soul (and the spirit of all creation) has inhabited for thousands of years.’’

Mining Town, 1966 was drawn while Shay Docking was living in New Zealand. The painting shows her interest in Cezanne and cubism with it simplified forms creating an overall pattern of strong colour and tonal contrasts. However the drawing also reflects her fascination with geology and its metaphors. It is a drawing of a mining town (possible Huntly or Waihi) living off the rich resources of the land, a land cut up and reshaped by humanity in a cycle of decay and renewal.

In 1971 Gill and Shay Docking returned to Sydney after six years in Auckland, where they remained for the rest of their lives together.