KINGSTON, AMIE (1912-1996)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
“The Bay (Elizabeth Bay)" (1950)
Oil on card
35 x 55cm
Signed lower left
*Macquarie Galleries, 1951
*private collection, Sydney
 
Kingston was a respected Australian Modernist. She studied at the Hobart Technical College with Lucien Dechaineux and Mildred Lovett, then taught there. In 1937 she went to London to study stage design at the Slade School under Vladimir Polunin, and life drawing and painting at the Westminster School under Bernard Meninsky. She also studied fabric design and printing at the Central School of Art. In 1940, Kingston returned to Sydney where she worked as a display artist for Farmers department store while she exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society and Society of Artists. She went on to work extensively in theatre design not only preparing the designs, but often painting the scenery as well. Her most significant projects were those done for the Kirsova Ballet and the Sydney Conservatorium Opera School. In the late 1940s she taught at the Double Bay Design School. This impressive painting was completed shortly after Kingston moved to Elanora Heights, on Sydney's Northern Beaches.
 
This fascinating oil of Elizabeth Bay (where she lived) was exhibited at Macquarie Galleries in 1951, where the Bulletin described the painting as "obviously derives from Dobell's 'Storm Approaching Wangi'" which won the Wynne Prize in 1948. Ironically, in Jan 1944, Amie was asked by the Daily Telegraph about Dobell's controversial 1943 Archibald-winning portrait, which she called "the most inspired portrait in the room". The influence is clear in this modern masterpiece!