Docking was born Shiela Lawson, in Warrnambool Victoria in 1928,[1] and was the youngest of seven children.
[3] Docking featured in an Exhibition of Paintings by Leading Victorian and Interstate Artists at the Australian Galleries, Melbourne in 1957.
In 1987 artist Margaret Ackland painted a portrait of Docking for the Archibald Prize and was a finalist.
[7] The monograph, Shay Docking: The Landscape as Metaphor with text by Ursula Prunster in association with the artist, published by AH & AW Reed, Sydney published in 1983 Shay Docking Drawings by Lou Klepac, with an essay by Hendrik Kolenberg published by The Beagle Press, Sydney (1990) In 1987 she wrote Tower hill and other volcanoes to accompany a survey exhibition Docking, Gil with additions by Michael Dunn covering 1970–90.
A conversation with Shay Docking, Ascent, Journal of the Arts in New Zealand, Vol 1, No.
A journey into the textured lands of Shay Docking in Rhonda Davis and Leonard Janiszewski (eds.
), Song of Earth and Sea: Shay Docking 1955–1996, Macquarie University, Sydney 2011