china painter, leather and poker worker, embroiderer, fabric printer and book binder, was born at Mosman Bay on 26 April 1893, into the dynasty which controlled Sydney’s famous hardware store, Nock & Kirby. As a child, Olive roamed the bush surrounding her home at Lindfield on Sydney’s North Shore and developed a keen awareness of the native flora and fauna. Her observations were to provide her with a lifetime of inspiration and a serious interest through membership of the Royal Zoological Society.
Disappointed by Chatswood Public School’s failure to prepare her for tertiary study, Olive entered the family business at the age of sixteen, where she undertook clerical and financial duties and supervised the observance of industrial awards. With the encouragement of her family, who allowed her time off from work each week, Olive attended drawing classes at Hornsby Technical College under George Collingridge and china painting classes with Gertrude Brown, a former assistant to J. Arthur Peach, the first teacher of china painting at Sydney Technical College.
In 1925-27 Olive travelled extensively in England and Europe, visiting the Paris International Exhibition and potteries in London and Staffordshire. Seeing china painting and fabrics in England inspired her to design comparable works, but using Australian motifs. In 1929 Eirene Mort proposed her for membership of the Society of Arts and Crafts. Over the next four decades Olive Nock was a deeply committed member, exhibitor, office bearer and ultimately Patron of the Society. It offered her the outlet for her creative energy that had been denied her in any professional area. Many of the skills she acquired were self-taught. From the early 1930s she worked in an increasingly Art Deco style, influenced too by the Aboriginal bark shields she studied at the Australian Museum.
Olive Nock dedicated her life to increasing opportunities for men and women in the areas of craft, colour and design. She was a tireless demonstrator at exhibitions held by the Society of Arts and Crafts and willingly shared her knowledge and experience. Through her Red Cross activities, she assisted with the war effort and participated in repatriation schemes at Concord Repatriation Hospital.
In 1946, following the establishment of the Society’s Craft Training School at Double Bay and the appointment of Mrs Ann Gillmore Ross as its director, Olive taught classes there in design and colour. She undertook numerous commissions, including a bird’s-eye maple and satin fan hand-painted with blue wrens for Lady Gowrie and batik car pennants for the Australian Ambassadors to the USA and Canada. Many of her designs were reproduced on letterheads and cards used by the Society of Arts and Crafts.
- Writers:
- Betteridge, Margaret
Note: Heritage biography.
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
