Dawn Fitzpatrick

Dawn (nee Baillieu) Fitzpatrick was born on January the 18th 1922. Dawn is a pioneer of an artform that she coined the name for, "Cloth Art", which she first exhibited in 1972 in West Street Gallery, in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Dawn's bold, masculine and figurative style stood alone. Her offsider, Lee McGorman, assisted Dawn with creating some monumental works, that now grace the walls of board rooms, public and private collections around the world. Lee's main job was to sew down the completed panel pieces onto a background cloth. Lee also did the geometric borders and later on, when Lee felt she needed more expression, Dawn allowed her to include some of the parrots on some works.

Their partnership came to a close but Dawn continued on with her work, eventually going to Jerusalem, Israel, to create an exhibition entitled "The Gates of Jerusalem" which consisted of many cloth art panels of varying sizes, and thanks to Jerusalem's Mayor, Teddie Kollack, and Tamar Goldschmidt, Dawn was made the first artist in residence at the Jerusalem Foundation Building.

Dawn also created the book titled on this page, the publisher however insisted that it was named "Folk Art Applique Quilts", stating that it would give the book better market reach. Of course, it also robbed the artwork of its actual title and description, "Cloth Art".

Dawn is not in any major public gallery in Australia, which is staggering considering so many people working in cloth today owe something to her for either direct teaching and mentorship, or just inspiration on seeing her work, or following her book.

Dawn is in one gallery, in Tasmania, as a result of winning the gallery's acquisative prize, a small work that she and Lee created.

There are people who claim to have been the original pioneer of Cloth Art, but only Dawn Fitzpatrick has proof, in the form of a newspaper interview after the opening of the West Street Gallery exhibition, during which the reporter asked her to coin a name for her style of art.

One other practioner, Vivian Pengelly, claims to precede Dawn, but neither had heard of the other, and any comparison in style was out of the question, for Dawn's work stemmed from many years of creating drawings, again unclassifiable according to the Royal Art Society of Adelaide, so they would hang her work 'around the corner' of the main exhibitions, Dawn stopped trying with them.

Nearly all her drawings were snatched away from her, by friends who demanded that she gave them the work, even before it was finished! But they never paid her a cent, all went for love; Dawn's payment was some recognition and appreciation for her drawings, even if it was just from friends.

But two were sold, one to Colin Croft, the English television producer, the other to a vain man who cut it in half, as he had asked for a portrait; Dawn warned him she did not do exact portraits, but captured something of the essence of the person, Dawn captured his essence too closely it seems, he kept the koala clown and threw away the androgenous nude.

All her drawn figures were verging on the abstract, Braque and Picasso would have loved them, I am sure. Interestingly, Dawn was drawing in a similar style in the 1930s, influenced by the Japanese, which Dawn embued her Cloth Art work with, the black outline being the dominant feature.

The photo (opposite) of Dawn was taken two years ago, 2008, with her dear pug Stella, sadly now deceased. Dawn is still going strong, living now in Katoomba, but she is unable to do the strenuous work needed for Cloth Art these days, being 88 she is taking things easy, but never idle for too long. Presently (July 2010) she is in the USA, visiting one of her children, who will take her on a short tour into Canada. Hopefully the trip will stimulate Dawn to start drawing again.

I think it is time Dawn Fitzpatrick's drawings and Cloth Art work was properly recognized by her own country. I ask everyone, who is of that same opinion, to write to the head of the NSW Art Gallery; Edmund Capon, and also write to the National Gallery in Canberra, and the Australian Gallery in Victoria, and ask them when they intend to do something about it!