Vale Pat Hillcoat and Jan Delaney
Left: Pat Hillcoat, ‘Untitled’ [detail], mixed media. Image from Slide Kit L87_055, Women’s Art Register Archive. Right: Jan Delaney, ‘Crossing’ 2011, oil on canvas, 50 x 60cm.
This year we are saddened to have seen two W.A.R. Life Members and legends pass away, and we would like to acknowledge the work and life of both Pat Hillcoat and Jan Delaney.
PAT HILLCOAT (1935–2022)
Pat Hillcoat passed away on 26 October in Melbourne, surrounded by her family (husband Brian and their four children).
Originally trained as a nurse, Pat then studied art at Dundas Valley School of Art, Ontario, Canada in the late 1960s. Pat’s dedication to her art practice extended over four decades, culminating in three solo exhibitions in Canada and eleven in Australia, including Over Her Dead Body, AGOG/Australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra (1994) and Down Under Among the Women, Judith Pugh Gallery/70 Arden Street (1985).
Pat also exhibited in 40 group exhibitions including the 1st and 2nd IWD group exhibitions at The Women’s Gallery (1990 and 1991), an ongoing collaborative project between W.A.R. and The Women’s Gallery. Other highlights include exhibiting at ACAF 4 (1996), numerous media reviews, public lectures and interviews and having her work purchased for the collections of Quit Victoria, Anti-Cancer Council Victoria, as well as numerous private collections.
Pat’s career was international in scope, with study and exhibitions in the US and Canada where Pat and her family lived from 1965–1978. Upon her return to Australia, Pat combined her studio and family home at 797 Drummond Street, Carlton North. Here she worked in painting and collage, making both small and large works that explored themes of the body, advertising, sexuality and political activism. One of her many solo exhibitions She-Devils & Lady Killers, The Women’s Gallery, Fitzroy (1990), curated by Artmoves, was funded by grants from Quit Victoria and Vic Health. The large painterly collages were powerful evocations of the dangers of smoking to women. A committed feminist, Pat was very active politically, remarking once how she’d stared down Brian Harradine on the steps of Parliament. The conservative Senator was working to limit abortion and women’s access to care.
Pat was on the Women’s Art Register Committee from 1983–90 and was a forthright member always keen to discuss issues, exhibitions and books. Her international exposure and networks meant that she was able to share new publications and international art discussion with W.A.R. via her regular column ‘A Look At Books’, published in the W.A.R. Bulletin from 1988 to 2001.
She wrote: “The inspiration to write my column in the Bulletin came about on my return to Australia in 1978 after living with my family in New Haven, Connecticut, for three years and in Hamilton, Ontario, for ten years. […] At Yale I was involved in women’s groups that were active in feminism, civil rights, black power and protests against the Vietnam war. It was fortunate being so close to New York that I could follow the main trends in art. At the same time I began buying art books, especially those on women artists, and so started my collection. […] The internet did not exist at that time. It now makes accessible more information and art news than was available when I wrote my column, but I believe a critical filter is still needed to help artists and art lovers find quality material. I thank the Women’s Art Register for the opportunity to contribute through my column.”
In 1988 whilst preparing for an exhibition, Pat delivered her finished works to the studio of photographer Ross Bird, just south of the city in Melbourne, to be documented prior to framing. The next day she received the devastating news that the studio had caught fire and all her works were lost. It was a shocking blow after months of work and she suffered greatly before being able to return to her studio to begin work again. This story is featured in our recent online mapping project This Is W.A.R!
One of Pat’s work from the series Little Sisters in Memorium (1989)—a series of works made as a direct response to the fire—was recently shown at the George Paton Gallery, along with an audio interview from 2015, as part of the 2022 exhibition and archival display When you think about feminism, what do you think? George Paton Gallery, Feminisms 1975–2022.
An extensive archive of Pat’s work, life and career is held by the Women’s Art Register, and is available for viewing and research, by appointment.
Pat Hillcoat in her studio, c.1983. Photo by Brian Hillcoat.
Pat Hillcoat, 'British Roots' c.1975.
JAN DELANEY (1934–2022)
Jan Delaney passed away in June 2022, following a long illness. She was a long standing member of the Women’s Art Register and a Committee member.
Jan studied at the Bendigo School of Mines and the Dorothy Baker Art School in the 1960s. Her artistic practice began with works in stone, clay and metal, then took up oil painting which became her dominant medium. Her works investigated figures, figures in landscape and the exploration of colour through abstraction. In her 1991 catalogue for the exhibition Genesis at The Women’s Gallery, Fitzroy, Jan wrote:
These works arise from exploring four different perspectives:
1. By emersion in the colour, sound, movement and balance of nature, depicting aspects of my living environment.
2. Becoming aware of the living elements of seemingly inanimate objects (crystalised forms and fossils) by using scientific tools.
3. Merging of art and craft forms.
4. The search for personal balance via the exploration of positive/negative, yin/yan, light/dark concepts.
Her work was exhibited widely in Melbourne at venues such as CASSPACE (Collins Street), Artefact (Jam Factory, Prahran), Alliance Française, Jan Gough Gallery, The Women’s Gallery (Fitzroy) and Suits Gallery (CBD). She also exhibited in a number of international exhibitions in Palestine, UK, Germany, Italy and China, and her work is held in Victorian and international collections.
Jan was President of the Contemporary Artists’ Society of Victoria from 1987–1989 and maintained memberships of the Victorian Artists’ Society, The Women’s Gallery and the Women’s Art Register over many years. Jan is cited in Well Said: Perspectives from Who’s Who of Australian Women (2006).
Jan won first prize at the 1990 Shire of Numurkah Acquisitive Award and the Contemporary Art Society 1994 exhibition at the Meat Market, Melbourne, and was Highly Commended at the 1975 Herald Art Show. She was given a Signatory Award from the Victorian Artists’ Society for Contribution and Services to the Arts, in 1991. In 2011, Jan published the book Light Muses, a collaborative project with poet Irina Kuzminsky.
Jan Delaney, ‘Crossing’ 2011, oil on canvas, 50 x 60cm.
Jan Delaney, ‘Crossing 2’ 2011, oil on canvas, 50 x 60cm.