Craig Janie (later Mrs W.S. Webster)   (1876 - 1906)

Painter of wildflowers, was born in South Australia, daughter of James Houston Craig (1846-1915) and Alma Janet Foster Laurie (1847-1946). She was one of four children and had flaming red hair.

It is probable that she studied art in South Australia before she came to Western Australia with her family. She joined the WA Society of Arts and in 1902 was listed in the catalogue of the annual exhibition held 19-31 May in the Hamburg Chambers as a 'Working Member' and a committee member. Working members were those who had had work accepted for exhibition. Honorary members were those who joined as such or had failed to exhibit in two consecutive exhibitions.

Austral Press, 9 Wellington Street, Perth (1902-1910) had published Janie Craig's paintings as a booklet of eight colour plates of grouped wildflowers, numbered 1-6 and 9, including a front cover of a picture of an old Aboriginal, shirt, trousers and humpy flanked by kangaroo and emu within a frame of wildflowers. It bore the legend "The Austral Series of West Australian Wildflowers as painted from Nature by Miss Janie Craig." In 1903 her studio was at 79 Adelaide Street, Fremantle where she taught painting.

Janie left the State but returned in 1905 to marry William Stanley Webster, son of William Schneider Webster Chief Warder at the Prison in Fremantle. They were both thirty. He was an accountant of The Terrace Fremantle. In 1906 she studied Art Needlework at Perth Technical School under South Australian Loui Benham. In October 1906 a son, Arnold Tennyson Stewart Stanley Webster, was born.
Four weeks later his mother died.

When the Tourist Bureau was started in WA, c.1910, it obtained the rights to publish some or all of her ten paintings. Seven were in a Tourist Bureau Booklet and as cards. Had the other three already been sold? One at least was printed in England. The Government Printer also published them to attract visitors to WA. There is an example in the collection of the RWAHS (No 1) on the verso is printed, "Issued by Government Tourist Bureau, 62 Barrack Street, for the Tourist, advertising Holiday and Health Resorts Unlimited. Govt Printer Perth, Western Australian Products that have won Universal Admiration. Westralian Wildflowers, Plaistowes Chocolates and Confectionery & Metters."

Collections: Brisbane Public Library, National Library, Canberra, BL, RWAHS.

Source: pers.com. Dorothy Erickson (10/4/2013)
WA Society of Arts Catalogue 1902.
"The Austral Series of West Australian Wildflowers" as painted from nature by Miss Janie Craig.
Portrait Photo: none known