Elaine Haxton

Elaine Alys Haxton was born in Newmarket, Melbourne in 1909, the youngest of three children of David Malcom Haxton and Isobel Florence Haxton.Her family moved to Sydney in 1910. Here at the age of 14 she started training at East Sydney Technical College under Rayner Hoff. Her days were filled with drawing and sculpture, interrupted with painting activities such as preparing for Artists Balls, student exhibitions and assisting Rayner Hoff.

To help pay for her art classes Elaine did pokerwork on wooden vases and the like, with Australian motives. Later she worked at David Jones in fashion design advertisements. At that time she was still at East Sydney Technical College as a night student. Elaine left David Jones to freelance painting with watercolours, Elaine exhibited in a number of group art shows Colin Simpson’s newspaper critic’s glowing article headed “Watch Miss Haxton”.

Elaine sailed for England on the “Jervis Bay” in 1931 with £10 in her pocket. Elaine found work in London with J. Walter Thompson, an advertising agency. Her work included drawings in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Seventeen, House and Garden, Strand Magazine and in Paris for La Fayette Galleries.

At night she studied drawing and painting at the Grosvenor School under Lain McNab. There were painting trips to France, Spain and Germany with fellow artists Brenda Cooley and John Passmore. Exhibitions in London included Elaine’s oil paintings and drawings. At that time, other countries visited to do more paintings wer Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.After 8 years in London, Elaine decided to return to Australia to see the family via New York. While in New York, Elaine visited friends, art galleries, theatres and travelled east to west in USA. Of New York she said “I was overcome by the lavish stage productions, but never had a thought of designing a theatre.” She left New York and travelled to Mexico by bus to Laredo and moved around the country mainly by bus. Her paintings and drawings filling sketch books continuously. At Cueravaca she stayed for a while in a motel with a perfect little studio of white washed walls overlooking a flower drenched courtyard with a musical fountain and swimming pool. The colours of the buildings, people flowers and market places filled her paintings of the area.Murals in Mexico had a profound influence on her and later she was able to use these experiences to paint charming designs, notably the Claremont Café (1940) and La Coq D’or Restaurant, which won the Sulman Prize 1943.

All the time she was abroad Elaine wrote marvelous descriptive letters to her mother and father, which included wonderful informative and colourful drawings of places she was visiting. After about 3 months she left her home on the “Monterey” to see her family in Australia and stay about 6 months.Weeks later, September 1939 war against Germany was declared, so Elaine remained in Australia. The next few years were very productive. Countless principle mixed exhibitions, One Man shows, 5 murals , theatre décor and costume designs, book illustrations designing textiles for Marion Hall Best, John Kalder and Claude Alcorso. Travelling to Merauke, New Guinea in wartime (1945) with Dutch dancers to entertain the troops as a stage manager, Elaine also designed the costumes and painted the stage scenes from long rolls of paper every night as the strong wind tore them, even so, the troops made souvenirs of them.

Returning to Sydney, Elaine became an important member of a fine art group of painters and friends, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Donald friend, Adrian Feint. In 1941 Dobell painted her portrait, which was bought by MR and Mrs Lloyd Jones.Still painting until she left for New York in 1945, Elaine arrives on Christmas Eve and was taken by Peggy Guggenheim’s famous Christmas party by Edgar Kauffman. Elaine stayed for Christmas and New Year with the Kauffman family at “Falling Waters” the Frank Lloyd Wright famous house.

Elaine was in New York to study theatre design at the New School of Theatre Design. She found New York “intoxicating and the galleries, oh so exciting”. Her life was full of new paintings, new people, concerts, museums and sights. Elaine stayed in Washington DC, Philadelphia and San Francisco.In 1947 Elaine returned to London to study and work. This is where Elaine met her future husband Brigadier Richard Cunningham Foot (Dickie).Back to Sydney again, this was 1948; Elaine rented a flat in College Street and proceeded to work harder than ever.Anthony Hordens, a Sydney department store, celebrated its 125th birthday by employing Elaine and Alister Morrison, one of the finest industrial designers, to design and create their 50 big windows. It was the biggest display ever done for an Australian store. Elaine painted large backgrounds, delightful peep shows and other props, for the merchandise on display. Original sketches still survive

Dickie returned to Sydney while Elaine finished her committed work before returning to Sydney. Dickie purchased a large block of land with a boatshed on Pittwater.This became a living area/studio for Elaine while the house, designed by architect Arthur Balwinson, was being built. By now Elaine’s drawings and paintings were being purchased by the National Galleries in Australia and overseas.In 1950 Elaine produced two One Man shows, participated in a number of mixed shows including “A Collection of NSW Painters” for the Perth Art Gallery. The painters included William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Donald Fiend, Arthur Murch, Grave Crowley, Margaret Preston and others.

The 50’s were one of Elaine’s most productive time. In designing for the theatre, not only did she design the décor and costumes but painted the backdrops. The 5 “nutcracker” backdrops were 42 feet (12.8 metres) long by 24 feet (7.3 meters) wide and took a hectic 2 months to produce. The reviews were “perfect for the theme” delightful”, “a riot of colour and originality” etc. Elaine and Dickie were married. The house was finished, a two-storey contemporary style, with lots of glass and light and a studio on the top floor overlooking Pittwater. Elaine painted a mermaid on the ceiling of the bathroom and another mural on a patio wall.

The five week visit was amazing for Elaine. She filled sketch book after sketch book, full of landscapes, people, flowers and birds etc. Elaine would later use these sketches for reference in her paintings, printing and drawings. A number of exhibitions with Society of Artists, Society of Sculptors and Associated Macquarie Galleries and others followed. An exhibition of contemporary art called “Art in Everyday Life” organised to assist Legacy throughout Australian, invited artists to design and paint refrigerators. Elaine’s was a Greek theme designed on the front and 2 sides.

It was 1961 and Elaine was on her travels again, this time for the Venetian Blind Manufactures Federation of Australia and the Women’s Day Magazine. This painting tour included 16 countries in 3 months to paint anything that interested her. In an interview later Elaine remarked, “Of course it’s not easy to make sketches in the streets in a strange country, particularly when you don’t speak the language. People crowd around to watch you work, but long ago I learned how to beat that. I always carry a packet of sandwiches and when the crowd gets too oppressive I pull them out and start to eat. The crowd disappears at once; anywhere people will watch you draw but I’ve not yet found a country where they will stop to watch you eat.” Elaine returned to Sydney at the end of 3 months and she then completed 32 oil paintings from her large number of sketch books. Elaine started printing as Willoughby Arts Centre in 1965.

A number of print exhibitions followed through to 1969, including the Sydney Printmakers 1967, with Elaine’s etching; etching and aquatint; open bite and aquatint on zinc. Children’s books were illustrated, and prints were included in the Friennale Internazional Della Xilografia Contemporanea in Capri, Italy, The Print Council of Australia1969 and others. Next was a trip to Hagter 17, the famous printing workshop in Paris, France. Despite the cold and wet weather, Elaine learnt a lot. It was hard work, 8am – 8pm, very cold in the studio and walking down from her hotel some distance away, to the studio didn’t help. Her sketch books and notebooks were filled with information, which she referred to when she returned to Sydney and continued painting and printing. Elaine went to Japan to study woodblock printing with Tomikichiro Tokutiki the famous woodblock printer.

Elaine’s husband died of a heart attack in December 1969. More exhibitions filled her days and between 1970 – 1976 produced illustrations for 3 books. The Storey of China – Dr Lo Hui-Min. The Story of Australia – Meredith Hooper and the Story of Indonesia – Maslyn Williams. The Indonesian book illustrations to her to Indonesia for 2 months to gather information. In 1974 Elaine travelled to Tahiti to paint for 2 months. In 1977 the National Gallery purchased her entire collection of stage designs (sets and costumes) also prints, etchings and woodcuts. In 1978 Adelaide University purchased 6 prints. During the 1980s Elaine contributed to a large number of exhibitions, Solo shows of paintings and others of prints and drawings. In 1982 the Queen Victoria Museum and Art gallery in Launceston, Tasmania, held a retrospective exhibition called Elaine Haxton, Printmaker and this was shown again in Canberra and Brisbane. Elaine’s last solo show was held at Solander Gallery in Canberra ACT in October 1985. There were 14 new oils and drawings. As usual she continued to show in multi-artist shows.

In June 1986 Elaine was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia A.M. for service to the Arts, particularly printmaking. A retrospective exhibition of Elaine’s work was held at the Hamer Mathew Gallery in Double Bay, Sydney in 1990. Her last years were spent in Adelaide in the care of her family and in a nursing home. Elaine died in July 1999 aged 89. As a young child Elaine knew she would be an artist. As the years passed her love of people, the beauty of surroundings where ever she was and “the light that gives form to whatever you’re doing whether it’s a figure or a landscape”. Elaine was a prolific painter and printmaker. Her work has been seen in Australia and around the world. Her contribution to the arts has been honoured and enjoyed by people in galleries, theatres and in their own homes. What a legacy.