Audrey Gibbs 1921–2015
When someone passes on they say a small piece of them remains with those that knew them.
"Art Nouveau Girl in Green", acrylic by Audrey Gibbs.
This was the case with the artist Audrey Gibbs, for her art as well as her touching an emotional note with most folk who came in contact with her. Her paintings were inspired by everyday things and the beauty of them.
Audrey Irvine Ward was born in Maryborough, Queensland, on February 18, 1921, the second daughter of Gavin and Viola Ward. Gavin was the manager of the Maryborough branch of the newly formed Commonwealth Bank. When Audrey was young, the family moved to Toowoomba and she went to The Glennie School. A promotion with the bank meant another move for the family, to Rockhampton in 1928, where Audrey and her sister Marcia attended Rockhampton Girl's Grammar.
Audrey Gibbs on her 93rd birthday.
Audrey excelled in art, but was also good at sports including tennis and swimming. Audrey and Marcia also played golf, encouraged by their parents' passion for the game.
Drawing was always with Audrey, and she drew from an early age, drawing and sketching her father many times, as well as another hero of the era, The Prince of Wales. In 2012 she said: "I discovered it was fun creating pictures of the world around me and from then on I've never stopped trying."
She was privately tutored in art during her school years, spurred on by her imagination, and by her thirst and passion for reading, poetry and dancing, all embracing her creative spirit.
After she finished school, she worked in a commercial art studio preparing artworks for newspaper advertisements. When World War II broke out, she joined the WAAF (Woman's Auxiliary Air Force), and trained as a signals officer. She was stationed in Brisbane working for General Douglas MacArthur and in the lead up to the battle of the Coral Sea was responsible for the transmission of vital information. She was later transferred to Bairnsdale, Victoria, where she created a cryptic "Lady Bogey Crossword", published in the Melbourne Argus.
After the war, she was courted by a talented young doctor and promising surgeon, Wylie Gibbs, and they married in 1947. Wylie's first posting was in Darwin, so they drove there in their Baby Austin car.
After a small stint on Thursday Island, the family moved to London so Wylie could complete his FRCS (Fellow Royal College of Surgeons) training. They returned to Australia in 1952 and went to Bundaberg then Ipswich, where Wylie was appointed medical superintendent at Ipswich Base Hospital.
Wanting to expand on her art, Gibbs studied at the Central Technical College (Art Branch) in 1960 under art master Melville Haysom, doing life drawing, and working in oils for the first time. This study was only temporary as looking after a husband and six children was a fulltime job.
Wylie was elected to the Federal Parliament in the seat of Bowman in 1963 and the family moved to Greenslopes so he could serve his electorate. Many trips away in Canberra were a strain for Audrey, and in 1969 the change in electoral boundaries meant another move, to Manly in Brisbane. Wylie lost the seat in the 1969 election. His life as a politician was over, and so was the marriage.
Never one to buckle under, Gibbs moved on and in 1971 bought a Queenslander at Chelmer, in Brisbane's southwest. This home and garden was her rock and it would serve as her inspiration and motivation for the next 44 years.
Still, rearing her children meant Gibbs would need extra income, so she was regularly seen at shopping centres and fetes drawing and sketching portraits in pastel and charcoal for $20 a pop. She also entered in local art shows and competitions, and her work was being sought after. She was winning art prizes including the Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka), as well as contests at Corinda, Redcliffe, Brookfield, Caloundra, Gladstone and Maryborough.
In 1978 she resumed her study at the Queensland College of Art at Seven Hills. In fact she was the oldest student enrolled at the time. She also studied briefly under Australian landscape painter William Robinson. As well as portraits, Gibbs was a competent landscape painter and had her work hung in the Wynne Prize in Sydney and the Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize in Brisbane.
She joined the Pastel Society in 1980, and followed by joining the Royal Queensland Art Society, The Half Dozen Group of Artists and the Watercolour Society of Queensland. Gibbs also did a study tour to Russia and China in 1987. She was also an excellent draughtsman.
Gibbs had solo exhibitions in the 1980s, including four successful one-man shows at the Ardrossan and Riverhouse galleries in Brisbane, and a show at the Gladstone Art Gallery, followed by a small show at the RQAS in 1998.
Gallery director and curator Dawn Olerich observed: "She aims to study the relationship of form in her painting, to suggest rather than overstate the subject."
In later years Gibbs exhibited in her home in Chelmer with the paintings dotted lovingly around her living room, adding to the charm and appeal of each work. Most of these shows were sellouts. Her years with the RQAS didn't go unnoticed and in 2003 she was made a Fellow of the RQAS, and in 2009 a major retrospective of her work was staged, with work covering the 1960s to 2000s.
She has also used her artistic talents in judging art competitions, including the Capricorn Coast Art Festival in 1999 and the Brookfield Art Contest in 2000. She also acted as a selector for annual exhibitions with the RQAS and the Watercolour Society of Queensland.
Gibbs's work is held in private collections around Australia and the US, public collections such as Gladstone Art Gallery and the RQAS, and she even has a work held in Kensington Palace, London.
Gibbs was always striving to complete one more painting, and for her age she was a real dynamo, still entering competitions and exhibitions with enthusiasm and gaining recognition for her work.
Her art is drenched in nostalgia and her work reflects by-gone days, with many of her paintings mirroring her own childhood and family..
Audrey Gibbs is survived by children Prue, Patrick, Marcia and Jonathon, grandchildren Harry, Lucy, Jack, Robbie, Madeleine, Alice, Billie, Rosey, Holly, Harry and Anna and great-granddaughter Katy, plus her extended family. Her son Harry died in 1979 of a brain aneurism, and her daughter Rosamund in 1999 of breast cancer.
Greg de Silva