painter and printmaker, was born in Adelaide. She is primarily a figure painter whose main interest is depicting people in motion. Her witty and joyful observations of urban life recall the attitude and style of Honoré Daumier. She works in oil, watercolour, gouache and, occasionally, linocuts. She attended the Girls’ Central Art School and the SA School of Art in 1938-48, then took night classes in life drawing at the latter in 1948-51. For Shirley Keene, the most important teachers at the Art School were Mary P. Harris , for her teaching of composition, and Ivor Hele, for his rigorous training in observation and analysis of her work. She exhibited with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts (RSASA) and the Contemporary Art Society from 1942, and with Dorrit Black 's 'Group 9’. She has had three solo exhibitions, in August 1946 and March 1950 at the RSASA Gallery and in September 1947 at John Martin’s Art Gallery. Reviewers commented on the originality and vitality of her work.
In 1951 Shirley Keene went to London to live. Between August 1952 and October 1954 she produced a series of humorous, illustrated articles on London for the Adelaide Advertiser , entitled 'The London Background’. She worked briefly as an unskilled labourer in a printing office, then for the Spastic Society as an editor, lecturer, architectural researcher and organiser of an information service. The necessity of earning a living prevented full-time painting but she painted when possible, usually on her annual holidays. Indeed, she has pictorial observations of her holiday travels in over 42 countries. Often painted with gouache on brown paper, they are unconventional in their points of view. In 1985 Shirley Keene retired and returned to live in Adelaide, where she still occasionally exhibits her work. In recent years she has done witty black and white lithographs.
- Writers:
- Furby, Paula
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
