China painter and potter was born in Indonesia and arrived in Western Australia in 1946 from Indonesia where she had spent four years of World War II in a prisoner-of-war camp. Drok lived in Nedlands and studied china painting under Grace Nicholls having joined the Western Australian Women’s Society of Fine Arts and Crafts. She could only afford two lessons so was basically self-taught learning by experiment.
About 1961 Drok became the first porcelain-painting teacher at Fremantle Technical School remaining for about six years teaching many who later were notable. She then concentrated on studio work and workshops. Including frequent travel interstate and overseas.
Drok taught for Arts Access in country centres in the 1970s-80s. She had taught china painting for thirty-three years by 1985. She was a founding member of what is now the International China Painting Teachers Organisation. Drok had a share for nine months or so in Cynthia’s a china painting shop in Cottesloe with Elsie Manning. Her style was to capture a natural rendering of the wildflowers she painted. A complete tea set is in a private collection in Perth, Western Australia.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
