{{Short description|Australian portrait painter (1924–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}} {{Use British English|date=July 2014}} {{Infobox artist | name = June Mendoza | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|AO|OBE|RP|ROI|HonSWA|}} | image = | caption = | birth_name = June Yvonne Mendoza | birth_date = {{birth date|1924|06|12|df=y}} | birth_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|2024|05|16|1924|06|12|df=y}} | death_place = | education = <!--{{Indented plainlist| * {{ubl|[[]] (19–) Subject}} * {{ubl|[[]] (19–) [[]] in [[]]<br>[[]], [[]] and [[]]}} * {{ubl|[[]] (19–) [[]] in [[]]<br>[[]]}} }}--> | known_for = {{hlist|Painting|portraiture|}} | spouse = Keith Mackrell | children = 4 | style = | movement = | works = | awards = <!--{{ubl| * [[]] (19xx) * [[]] (19xx) }}--> | elected = <!--{{Indented plainlist| *Royal Society of Portrait Painters (19xx)<br>ARP 19xx<br>RP 19xx *[[]] (19xx)<br>AROI 19xx<br>ROI 19xx *[[]] (19xx) }}--> | website = {{URL|http://www.junemendoza.co.uk/}} }}
'''June Yvonne Mendoza''', AO, OBE, RP, ROI, HonSWA (12 June 1924 – 16 May 2024) was an Australian portrait painter, working mainly in oil.<ref>[http://pikitiapress.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/june-mendoza-interview.html Pikitia Press]. Retrieved 12 September 2015</ref><ref name="Lange">{{cite journal|last=Lange|first=Oliver|date=November 2000|title=June Mendoza - Body Language|journal=The Artist}}</ref>
== Early life == June Mendoza was born in Melbourne, Australia on 12 June 1924, the first child of Doris "Dot" (''née'' Mendoza) and John Morton. Her parents were both musicians, performers and composers in violin and piano respectively. They separated when she was six, and after their divorce in 1942, Mendoza's mother reverted to her maiden name. Her younger brother Peter Mendoza (born 1927) was an actor most notably with JC Williamsons in Australia and repertory theatre in England. As a child she toured with her mother, working in small mime parts and crowd scenes for the opera, ballet, musicals and revue. During these tours she started sketching in her spare time.<ref name="YPP">{{cite web|url=http://www.junemendoza.co.uk/CV_info.html|title=June Mendoza - website|accessdate=26 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=23 May 2024 |title=June Mendoza: Perceptive and skilful portrait painter whose subjects ranged from royalty to Chelsea Pensioners |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/05/21/june-mendoza-portrait-painter-queen-margaret-thatcher-diana/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |issue=52574 |page=31 |access-date=23 May 2024}} (Title of print and online versions differs).</ref> She realised that art was her calling at age 12 and commenced life classes at 14 and portraiture eventually became her forte.<ref name=Monk>{{cite news |last=Monk |first=Judith |date=November–December 2008 |title=Eminent Portrait Painter June Mendoza |magazine=Musical Opinion |volume=132 |issue=1467 |location=London |pages=22–25 |issn=0027-4623}}</ref> She left school early and after the Second World War moved to London, where she studied at St Martin’s School of Art.<ref name="Telegraph"/> In the 1940s and 1950s, she was also active as a comic artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mendoza_june.htm|title=June Mendoza|website=lambiek.net|access-date=11 June 2024}}</ref>
== Career == Mendoza's commissions have included portraits of royalty (such as Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Diana, Princess of Wales),<ref name="Tele">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9280532/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-interview-The-royal-portrait-painter.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530011918/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9280532/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-interview-The-royal-portrait-painter.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 May 2012|title=Video: Queen's Diamond Jubilee interview: The royal portrait painter|date=22 May 2012|work=The Daily Telegraph|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref> prime ministers (Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Corazon Aquino, Goh Chok Tong, John Gorton) and other politicians, sports people, military officers and celebrities.<ref name="Lange" /><ref name="CV">{{cite web|url=http://www.junemendoza.co.uk/CV_info.html|title=Portrait Artist June Mendoza - Information|publisher=June Mendoza|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref>
Her works are in a number of collections, including those of Britannia Royal Naval College, Girton College, Cambridge, the Green Howards Regimental Museum, the National Portrait Gallery (three works<ref name="NPG">{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07917/june-mendoza?role=art|title=National Portrait Gallery - Person - June Mendoza|publisher=National Portrait Gallery|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref>), the Open University, the Palace of Westminster, Queens' College, Cambridge, the Royal Scots Museum, and Trinity College, Oxford.<ref name="BIO">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/search/search/search/keyword:june-mendoza_artists|title=June Mendoza - Paintings|work=Art UK|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref>
Mendoza appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme ''Desert Island Discs'' on 8 September 1979,<ref name="DID">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/6cd40729#p009mx39 |title=Desert Island Discs - Castaway : June Mendoza |work=BBC Online |publisher=BBC |accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref> and in 1985 painted the presenter, Roy Plomley.<ref name="YPRP">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/roy-francis-plomley-157265|title=Roy Francis Plomley by June Mendoza|publisher=Art UK|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref>
In 1986 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bath.<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary graduates, 1980 to 1989 |url=https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/honorary-graduates-1980-to-1989/ |website=University of Bath Honorary Graduates |access-date=24 July 2024}}</ref>
== Personal life and death == In 1960 she married Keith Mackrell, whom she accompanied on two overseas postings, 1960–1965 in the Philippines and 1969–1973 in Australia. They had four children.
Mendoza died after a stroke on 16 May 2024, at the age of 99.<ref> {{Cite news |last= |first= |date=2024-05-21 |title=June Mendoza, portraitist who painted the Queen, Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/05/21/june-mendoza-portrait-painter-queen-margaret-thatcher-diana/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
== Honours == Mendoza was an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO),<ref>[https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869773 It's an Honour: AO]. Retrieved 12 September 2015</ref> Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) and of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP).<ref name="ROI">{{cite web|url=http://www.theroi.co.uk/artist_june_mendoza.php|title=June Mendoza|publisher=Royal Institute of Oil Painters|accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref> She was an Honorary Vice President of the Britain-Australia Society. She was a Patron of the Tait Memorial Trust, an Australian performing arts charity based in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taitmemorialtrust.org/Home |title=Tait Memorial Trust |accessdate=2016-07-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724035412/http://www.taitmemorialtrust.org/Home |archivedate=24 July 2016 }}</ref>
== DVD == * {{cite AV media | people= | date=| title= Portrait Painting in Oil With June Mendoza OBE RP ROI | medium=DVD | location= | publisher=Town House Films }}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official|http://www.junemendoza.co.uk/}} * {{Art UK bio}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120530011918/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9280532/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-interview-The-royal-portrait-painter.html Video] in which Mendoza discusses sittings by Queen Elizabeth II * [http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/584366 National Library of Australia] * [https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mendoza_june.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia biography.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendoza, June}} Category:1924 births Category:2024 deaths Category:Painters from Melbourne Category:Australian portrait painters Category:Australian expatriates in England Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:21st-century Australian painters Category:20th-century Australian women painters Category:21st-century Australian women painters Category:Australian comics artists Category:Australian women comics artists