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Sylvia’s art training was with the Royal Art Society in Sydney, New South Wales, and occurred over a period of six years. She was a student of Sid Long and William Lister Lister, and later Henry Hanke.
She lived in Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) for most of 1940 with her father, Leslie James Davis, an engineer on a gold-mining expedition. Sylvia spent her time painting landscapes and portraits of the local peoples. On her return to Sydney in 1941 she held her first solo exhibition with the proceeds going to the Red Cross. Howard Hinton purchased two works which he donation to the art collection at the Armidale Teachers’ College in country NSW.
She exhibited with other women artists in support of the Naval Auxiliary Fund – Ethel Stephens, Violet Davies, Sylvia Davis, Hilda Townshend, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Dora Toovey, Margaret Coen, Ethel Carrick, Myra Cocks, Elaine Coghlan, Hilda Proudfoot and Mollie O’Shea – at Farmer’s Blaxland galleries in 1942. Also exhibiting with the Royal Art Society.
Henry Hanke painted her portrait and entered it in the 1941 Archibald Prize (Art Gallery of NSW). Sylvia, herself, entered the Archibald Portrait Prize in 1942, 1943 (3 entries), 1944 and 1945.
Married a USA serviceman and moved to Connecticut, USA She died in West Hartford Connecticut in 2010.She married US serviceman Anthony Patricelli at St Mark’s, Darling Point in 1943 and Henry Hanke was the best man at the wedding. Daughter Susan was born in 1944. The family relocated to Connecticut USA at the end of the War in 1946.
Sylvia continued to paint and exhibit. In 1951 her exhibition at Hartford, Connecticut, was sponsored by G. Fox & Co., WTIC and the Wadsworth Athenaeum and opened by first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
She continued to produce many commissioned portraits of notable members of the New England community. Sylvia then turned her attention to notable American figures, including portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt and General Douglas MacArthur. In her later life she travelled with the PGA golf tour and created portraits of many of the great golf champions, and taught painting and drawing at the West Hartford Art League.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2024
- Last updated:
- 2024
