Kate Clifton was a painter and embroiderer. She was the daughter of George Spencer Compton, who was associated first with Benjamin Mason (settler who founded the Jarrah timbre industry in 'The Canning’ region of WA) and then had an import business and became a well-known figure on the goldfields. They arrived in Western Australia 1867 from Victoria and in 1879 Kate married Charles Leslie Worsley Clifton, the first manager of the Fremantle branch of the Western Australian Bank. There is little Art Needlework in public collections in Western Australia, however a fire screen embroidered with red poppies by Clifton is in the collection of the Western Australian Museum. The fire screen surround was made by her husband in about 1890 from the wood of the old Fremantle Jetty. Whether the poppies were used symbolically as in other artworks of the period is not known. The asymmetric design is simple, rendered in naturalistic style.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
