In her linocut print Doric Dairy, Eileen Mayo takes pleasure in observing a quaintly old-fashioned and endangered livelihood. The hurrying milkman delivers fresh supplies by horse and cart, moving from house to house to refill his customers’ cans or jugs from his sturdy churn. Eileen Mayo had met Claude Flight, principal champion of the linocut, while she was working at the Grosvenor School of Art in London as a life-class model. He is said to have instructed her in linocut technique over the telephone. She exhibited her earliest works in the Second Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts at London’s Redfern Gallery in 1930. Mayo left England for Australia in 1952 and ten years later joined family in New Zealand, where she would establish her reputation as a significant printmaker and teacher.

(Leaving for Work, 2 October 2021 - 1 May 2022)