Deutscher and Hackett

Judith was born late in her parents’ life and spent her young life immersed in a painter’s family with little income. The family lived in rental properties and luckily these were plentiful in Sydney at the time, allowing the family to be able to move quite often depending on how much money was available for rent. Most of the houses and flats that they lived in were around the harbour, North Sydney, Waverton and Potts Point. By the time Judith was 15 she had lived in 12 different places. Many of Wakelin’s paintings reflect the places where they were living, both in domestic scenes but also the views of Sydney. The home was always redecorated by her mother with strong bold colours and the furniture was often re-painted to fit in with the new decor of the flat. Moving meant that the paintings had to be moved too. Apparently this was orchestrated by Judith’s brother, also called Roland. Each home had to have a studio area for her father and on more than one occasion Judith had to share a bedroom with her aunt or sleep on a verandah. She rarely had her own room.

Judith was often a subject of her father’s paintings and there are many drawings and paintings of Judith, often reading as this was her favourite pastime, but also of domestic scenes such as stringing the beans, sewing, and playing the piano.

When Judith was 14, she had left school (North Sydney Girls High School) and was told by her father that she was to go to art school (East Sydney Tech). However after only a year there, with the war causing hardship, her father lost his job due to wartime restrictions and then came another move to a smaller flat for the family. During this time Judith trained at a business college and became the wage earner, working as an office worker, for the whole family. Young Roland had been already called up and stationed in New Guinea. Eventually her father found work with Manpower as a draughtsman at the post office, however the window of opportunity had gone for Judith and she never recommenced her art qualifications. However, one of the people she met on the first day, Ena Joyce, became a life-long friend.

Judith attended her father’s evening art classes in George Street and met many people there. The Macquarie Galleries in Bligh St and Beth Mayne’s Studio Shop on the corner of Palmer and Burton Streets in Darlinghurst were the two main places where her father’s work was exhibited. Judith kept in contact with her parent’s friends including Grace Cossington Smith, the Rees family (Lloyd Rees’ wife Marjory was her teacher at North Sydney Girls High School), George Lawrence, Enid Cambridge, Douglas Dundas and John Santry.

LOUISA MURRAY
Granddaughter of Roland Wakelin