Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/pamela-griffith

Birth Place

Arncliffe, NSW, Australia

Biography

Painter, printmaker, teacher and writer, was born in Sydney on 26 August 1943, daughter of the ceramicist Joyce Gittoes and grand daughter of painter Lavinia Figtree. She spent her girlhood at Rockdale and attended Moorefields Girls High at Kogarah. On completing the Leaving Certificate in 1960 she was awarded an art teaching scholarship. While a student at Sydney’s National Art School she was consistently ranked the top student of her certificate course, before attending Sydney Teachers’ College, where she was awarded the Art IV prize. In 1983, after the creation of Colleges of Advanced Education, she graduated from the Alexander Mackie CAE (now College of Fine Arts, UNSW). As well as teaching in NSW secondary schools she taught printmaking at technical college and at Colleges of Advanced Education. In later years she taught master classes at regional centres in NSW.Griffith first became involved in etching when she was a student and saw work by David Strachan and Strom Gould. In the late 1960s, when she began to make her own work, she saw that her style would work best with intense coloured work, patterned to carry images across crowded rooms. Aided by the technical expertise of her husband, Professor Ross Griffith, she designed a series of etching presses. Her prints are characterised by being made using fine grain aquatint and the effect is often achieved by using multiple plates. Her other concern was, and remains, native Australian flora and fauna as well as the landscape. This has led to many official commissions as well as her work being held in many public and corporate collections. Her book, Australia – an artist’s journey through the landscape (2003) includes reproductions of many of her best known etchings.Since the early 1969 Griffith has lived in Bardwell Park where she established the Griffith Studio and Graphic Workshop which published the work of many other artists, including David Boyd, Tony Coleing, Chris Gentle, Terrence O’Donnell, Pixie O’Harris, Geoffrey Proud, Blake Twigden, David Voigt, Trevor Weekes, John Winch, Salvatore Zoffrea and her brother George Gittoes. She has published over 400 editions of her own work, most of which are in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. In 1988 Griffith created two engraved the fabric toiles for Australia’s Bicentenary. Later she later created a similar toile for the beatification of Mary MacKillop and the visit to Australia of Pope John Paul. Other commissions include the design for the centenary of Federation celebration embroidered wall hanging at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre.As well as etchings and other prints, Griffith has has a considerable practice in landscape painting and still life. She has painted many portrait commissions, including Sir William Deane, Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge and the actor Henri Szeps. Writers: Mendelssohn, Joanna Date written: 1996 Last updated: 2007

Born

b. 1943

Summary

Sydney-born painter and printmaker who specialises in studies of Australian flora and fauna in landscape. Her work is held in many public and corporate collections in Australia.

Gender

Female

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed