painter and printmaker (etchings, linocuts and monotypes and woodcuts), was born in Sydenham, London, on 28 August 1893, the son of an architect, Edgar Hawkins, and Annie née Weaver. He attended Alleyn’s School from 1906-10 and won art prizes every year. Because of his talent he was able to take extra art classes in place of scripture. His initial tertiary studies were at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts under A.S. Hartrick, F. Jackson and R.Savage. His student friends included David Jones and Frank Medworth .
In 1914 he left Camberwell without graduating, and enlisted in the British Army. He served on the Western Front and on 1 July 1916 he was left for dead at Gommecourt at the Battle of the Somme. Two days later he crawled out of No Man’s Land. He was hospitalised, mainly at Bristol where a series of 20 operations by Major Hey Groves saved his arms from amputation. His right arm remained useless, so he learnt to paint with his left and took some classes at Bristol Art School before discharge. He was financially supported for the rest of his life by a British Army disability pension.
His etching and drypoint
Refugees 1918 (edn 10;
AGNSW), made England is inscribed in pencil '2nd etching. Done while in hospital 1918’.
Carnival 1920, etching (
AGNSW), and (
Fountain, Trafalgar Square ) 1920, etching and aquatint, (
AGNSW) are also English works.
He attended etching classes under Sir Frank Short at the Royal College of Art, London from 1921-22 eg.
Roadmakers 1921, etching (
AGNSW), and
Coffee Stall 1921, etching (edn 40; copies
AGNSW, Josef Lebovic). His linocut,
The wood engraver 1923, was in Bridget McDonnell’s exhibition
Australian Prints (Melbourne 29 October-22 November 1996: not illustrated). Later he made linocuts in a style comparable to those by Frank Medworth who also migrated to Australia , eg.
The Spring 1926 (
AGNSW).
On 15 September 1923 he married Irene Villiers, a printmaker, and left England. They travelled and worked in St Tropez, Siena and Sicily.
His most productive period began after he moved to Malta in 1927(eg.
The Two Minutes’ Silence c.1928, linocut [AGNSW], and
Puberty Ritual (Drunken Maltese Boys) c.1928 [edn 10; AGNSW]). He wrote and illustrated with original b/w woodcuts,
A Zoological Alphabet , self published, Malta [1929].In Malta he began to use the signature 'Raokin’, a phonetic version of the local attempt to say the name 'Hawkins’.
In 1933-34 the family travelled to Tahiti and lived for 18 months at Paea where they were adopted by the local Turai family and named 'Maui’. After travelling to New Zealand they then settled in Mona Vale at a house they called 'Maui Ma’. Here they lived until 1959. He made artist friends from his neighbours – Arthur Murch, Paul Beadle, Rah Fizelle and John Eldershaw – but did not at first exhibit. After Frank Medworth came to Sydney to head the East Sydney Technical College art school in 1939, he persuaded Hawkins to begin to show his work, and he first exhibited again in 1941.
Weaver Hawkins became active in the fledgling Contemporary Art Society of NSW. From 1948 he was on the Committee and later became President. There were other connections as friendship with the artists Frank and Margel Hinder preceded the later marriage of his son Laric with the Hinder’s daughter Enid. Hawkins advocacy for art included giving many lectures and statements to UNESCO’s Australia’s Advisory Council for Visual Arts and its International Association of Visual Arts.He was a regular exhibitor at both the Blak Prize and the Sulman Prize.
In 1956 he paid a return visit to Britain where he met again with David Jones, as well as visiting his brother Ernest in Turkey. On their return to Australia Weaver and Irene Hawkins settled at North Sydney, then Willoughby. Later they moved to Northbridge where he lived until suffering a stroke in 1975 when he moved to a nursing home at Castlecrag.
Hawkins died at on 13 August 1977.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
Joanna Mendelssohn
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2012
