Jean Appleton

Jean Appleton (13 September 1911 – 11 June 2003) was an Australian painter, art teacher and printmaker. She worked with oils, watercolour, charcoal, pastel, pencil and India ink. The second of three children and an only daughter, Appleton did a five-year diploma course in drawing and illustration at the East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School).

She later moved to England and enrolled at the Westminster School of Art where she produced Australia's two earliest cubist paintings. After the Second World War broke out, Appleton returned to Australia in 1940, to teach art at three public schools to allow for the continuation of her work and assisted in the war effort by studying vocational therapy. Her work received a large amount of recognition from the art industry, and she earned four prizes.

Biography

Early life and education Appleton was born in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield on 13 September 1911. Her father encouraged her to read books, and her elder brother Frederick instilled a sense of adventure into her. Appleton had a lifelong interest in the performing due to her great-aunt Agnes Blackwood. She was educated at the small Haberfield Private School, and was disciplined for drawing in her study books; she wanted to become an artist during her childhood. After she earned an intermediate certificate with an A in arts in 1928, Appleton enrolled at the East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School) to commence a five-year diploma course in art. She was educated by the painters Bernard Meninsky and Mark Gertler.

Personal life and personality

Appleton was married two times. In 1943, she married the painter Eric Wilson. In 1942, Appleton went away from rounded geometric forms that she learnt during her time in London to an increasingly decorative and schematic cubist style and experienced with a lighter colour scheme. Solo exhibition, The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1949

Awards

East Sydney Technical College Scholarship, 1928 Rockdale Art Prize, 1958 D'Arcy Morris Prize for Religious Painting, 1960 Bathurst Art Prize, 1961 Portia Geach Memorial Award, 1965 Orange Festival Art Prize, 1977 Manly Art Prize, 1977