Eileen Mayo

DAME EILEEN MAYO (1906 - 1994) was a very accomplished artist and designer who worked in almost every available medium - drawings, woodcuts, lithographs on stone and tempera, tapestry and silk screening. She was an artist who enjoyed experimenting in different materials, and in addition to being a printmaker, illustrator, calligrapher and muralist, she designed coins, stamps, tapestry and posters, and wrote and illustrated eight books on natural science.

Life in England

She was born in Norwich, England and was educated in Yorkshire and Clifton High School, Bristol.

Mayo had a thorough grounding in art, studying at the Slade School in London, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and under Henry Moore at the Chelsea Polytechnic. In 1927 she was instructed in lino-cutting by Claude Flight over the telephone. Her resulting print was called "Turkish Bath" which was included in the Redfern Gallery's ‘First Exhibition of British Linocuts’. The picture was subsequently bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1948 she moved to Paris to study with Fernand Léger at the Académie Montmartre.

She held teaching positions at St. Martin's School of Art and Sir John Cass College in London. She became a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, and wrote and illustrated a series of books. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy and with the Royal Society of British Artists.

For a time she worked as an artists' model, working particularly for Laura Knight.

She married Dr Richard Gainsborough who founded Art News & Reviews, and she designed the first issue when it appeared in 1949.

File:PlatypusOneShillingStampByEileenMayo.jpg

The One Shilling Platypus stamp designed by Eileen Mayo. The other stamps in the series feature the kangaroo, banded anteater, tiger cat, rabbit bandicoot and the Tasmanian tiger (now believed extinct). She produced many stamp and poster designs that depicted the striking flora and fauna of Australia. This stamp series is significant as it was one of the earliest attempts at putting Australian flora and fauna on stamps. In addition it was one of the first times that a designer further commercialised their designs by producing poster versions of the stamp artwork and made them available for sale. This postage stamp from the Australian Commonwealth series of six issued between 1959 and 1962. The series was designed for the Postmaster General's Department now called Australia Post.

Life in Australia

Mayo emigrated to Australia in 1952 and became one of the many migrants who contributed to the postwar print revival. She taught at the National Art School in Sydney and was a member of Sydney Printmakers. Her career in Australia included working on murals and designing tapestries and posters. She designed the platypus for the one-shilling stamp, and in 1962 she was awarded the Vizard-Wholohan Prize for prints.

Life in New Zealand

After separating from her husband in 1962, she moved to Waimate (South Canterbury) in New Zealand, where her mother and sister had lived since 1921. By 1965 Mayo had moved to Christchurch, where she taught at the University of Canterbury SFA until 1972. For more than three years she also worked on an underwater diorama with Otago Museum. A founding member of Sydney Printmakers, she was on the Print Council of New Zealand.

Apart from a period in Dunedin from 1972 to 1975, she remained in Christchurch until her death in 1994. She continued producing prints in Christchurch until 1985.

She is best known for her animal prints, which displayed a careful observation and a lively eye for detail. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in the 1994 New Year's Honours List.

Eileen Mayo studied at the following institutions

• The Slade School of Fine Art, London (1924-25)
• Grosvenor School of Modern Art under Claude Flight
• Central School of Arts and Crafts, London under Noel Rooke and John Farleigh.
• Chelsea Polytechnic (1936), London
• Academie Montmarte, Paris (1948-49) under Ferdinand Léger

Eileen Mayo lectured at the following institutions

• St Martin's School Of Art
• Sir John Cass College, London (1950-53)
• National Art School, Sydney (1957-62)
• School of Fine Art, University of Canterbury (from 1967)

Eileen Mayo's work is represented in many public collections in New Zealand

• Aigantighe Art Gallery
• Dowse Art Museum
• Dunedin Public Art Gallery
• Hocken Library
• Manawatu Art Gallery
• Christchurch Art Gallery
• National Library of New Zealand
• Rotorua Museum of Art and History
• Te Papa and Alexander Turnbull Library.

Eileen Mayo illustrated the following books

• The Story Of Living Things and Their Evolution
• Serge Lifar: Sixteen Drawings in Black and White
• First French Course for Seniors
• Some Scottish Dances
• BEST CAT STORIES
• Nature's ABC
• A Primer of Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) for Children
• A Second Primer of Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) for Children
• Shells and How They Live
• One Day on Beetle Rock
• Nature's ABC
• Little Animals of the Countryside
• Rational Limbering
• Animals on the Farm.
• The Story of the World
• The Children's Circus Book
• Larger Animals of the Countryside
• JAPANESE GARLAND.
• Toys
• Mother and Son.