'Belle of the Ballet' (Girl, 1 February 1956).
June Mendoza was an Australian artist and theater performer, who briefly worked in the Australian comic industry of the 1940s, before becoming a prominent portrait painter in England.
Early life
June Yvonne Mendoza was born as June Morton in 1924 in Melbourne, Victoria. Her parents were musicians and composers, her father played the piano and her mother the violin. Her younger brother Peter Mendoza later became a theater actor. After the divorce of her parents, June and her brother assumed their mother's maiden name. As her mother toured the country, June had her first acting experiences in small mime parts and crowd scenes for the opera, ballet, musicals and revue. While on the road, she developed a keen interest in drawing, and at age 12, she began taking art classes, becoming especially fond of portrait painting.
'The Panther Man' (reprint in The Adventures of Devil Doone #2, November 1948).
Australian Comics
After World War II, Mendoza had a brief stint as a comic artist, working for the short-lived Australian comic industry. Between November 1945 and July 1946, she drew 'The Adventures of Devil Doone', a whodunnit feature written by R. Carson Gold for K.G. Murray Publishing's Man Junior magazine. Later episodes of this detective comic were drawn by Hart Amos. In 1948, several stories were reprinted in the landscape-format 'The Adventures of Devil Doone' comic book, also published by K.G. Murray.
In addition, June Mendoza drew comic stories for the Gem Comics title, published by Frank Johnson, drawing stories about legendary creatures like the Oozlum bird. In 1949, she was writing and drawing the adventure comic serial 'The Holts of Koonalunda' for Woman, a magazine published by Sungravure Pty. Ltd.
'The Oozlum Bird' (Gem Comics, January 1948).
Move to England
In the 1950s, Mendoza moved to London, England, where she studied at St Martin's School of Art. Under the pen name Chris Garvey, she continued doing comic art, drawing the serials 'Soldier Joan' (1953-1954) and 'Belle of the Ballet' (1954-1956) in Girl magazine by Hulton Press. She also made illustrations for Girl and Girl Annual. In addition, she took acting jobs at the West End Theatre, performing in 'Me and My Girl' with Lupino Lane. In 1960, she married her third husband, the international businessman Keith Mackrell, whom she accompanied on overseas postings in the Philippines (1960–1965) and Australia (1969–1973). The couple had four children.
'Soldier Joan' , about Joan of Arc (Girl #49, 1953).
Portrait painter
During her expat life, Mendoza picked up portrait painting again, experiencing it to "cross every social barrier". Back in England, Mendoza began pursuing portrait painting more professionally, starting with doing boardroom commissions, and later then making oils of actors and musicians. Eventually, she was one of the most sought-after portrait painters in the UK, and for a while she was the only woman in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RSPP). Over the years, she painted portraits of royalty - the Queen sat for her six times - and also prime ministers, military officers and other politicians.
Recognition
June Mendoza was an Officer of the Order of Australia, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. She was Honorary Vice President of the Britain-Australia Society, and a Patron of the Tait Memorial Trust, an Australian performing arts charity based in London. In 2014, she received the Ledger of Honour and was inducted in the Australian Comics Hall of Fame.
Death
June Mendoza died after a stroke on 16 May 2024. She was 99 years old.
Self-portrait.