Daphne Kingston's Hawkesbury

20 July - 2 September

A selling exhibition of work by the artist Daphne Kingston will open at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in Windsor on Friday 20 July, complementing the exhibition, WILD: Flora and fauna in Australian art, which opens at the same time.

Now in her senior years, and in declining health, Daphne Kingston is known for creating over many years a unique body of work, one that records the numerous slab barns, cottages and colonial houses that once characterised the Sydney area – especially the Hawkesbury, for which she developed great affection.

‘Daphne never lived in the Hawkesbury, but she had a deep love of the area, in particular, its humble barns and workers cottages,’ said Gallery Director, Kath von Witt. ‘These simple timber dwellings were built by early settlers using roughly sawn timber from locally felled trees, and remarkably, quite a number of them survived for more than 150 years before their demise. Daphne’s decision to draw them came from a desire to preserve their memory, in the sure knowledge that in due course they would give way to urban development.’

A graduate of the Julian Ashton Art School, Daphe Kingston was also an art teacher, and an illustrator and author of local histories, including The Changing Hawkesbury (1979), Early Slab Buildings of the Sydney Region (1985), Sydney's Hidden Charms (1987), Early Colonial Homes of the Sydney Region 1788-1838 (1990), A Hawkesbury sketchbook (1994) and Highways and Byways of the Sydney Region (1999).

The exhibition.is being staged in association with the Historic Houses Association, and all works are for sale - $350 mounted on high quality conservation materials, $200 unmounted.

Page ID: 113683