Brenda Chamberlain (artist)

Brenda Irene Chamberlain (17 March 1912 – 11 July 1971) was a Welsh artist, poet and novelist. She also wrote a memoir of the 15 years she spent living on Bardsey Island. She won the first two Gold Medals ever awarded by the National Eisteddfod of Wales in the Fine Art category.

See also: Brenda Chamberlain (politician)

Brenda Irene Chamberlain
Self portrait, 1938
(National Museum Wales)
Born(1912-03-17)March 17, 1912
Bangor, Wales
DiedJuly 11, 1971(1971-07-11) (aged 59)
Bangor, Wales
NationalityWelsh
EducationRoyal Academy of Arts
Known forPainting, poetry
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1935⁠–⁠1944)​

Early life and education
Brenda Chamberlain on a boat transporting cattle, during a Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island in 1950. Photograph by Geoff Charles.

Chamberlain was born in Bangor, the daughter of Francis Thomas Chamberlain and Elsie Cooil Chamberlain. Her father worked for the railway. Her mother served a term on Bangor Borough Council, and was later Mayor of Bangor during World War II.[1] Brenda Chamberlain studied art at the Royal Academy in London.[2]

Career
Ty'r Mynydd, Rachub, where Chamberlain lived with her husband John Petts

Before the Second World War, Chamberlain moved in with the artist John Petts. They married in 1935, but were divorced in 1944. In 1936 they moved to a cottage in Rachub, a small village near Bethesda, where they ran the Caseg Press with the poet Alun Lewis. The press produced postcards and bookplates, for which Chamberlain made woodcuts, and the Caseg Broadsheets, which featured poetry by Chamberlain and by others.[3][4] The cottage they shared, Ty'r Mynydd, bears a plaque commemorating their work.[5][6]

Chamberlain also produced prose works, including a novel (The Water Castle, 1964) and Tide-Race, a memoir of life at Carreg, Bardsey Island, where she lived and worked from 1947 until 1962.[7] The publication of Tide-Race coincided with a solo exhibition of Chamberlain's paintings at the Zwemmer Gallery in London.[8]

Chamberlain won the first two Gold Medals awarded by the National Eisteddfod of Wales for Fine Art, in 1951 for the painting Girl with a Siamese Cat and in 1953 for The Cristin Children.[9][8]

Later life

In 1961 Chamberlain went to live on the Greek island of Hydra, but returned to Wales in 1967. She died in 1971, age 59, in Bangor, after an overdose of sedatives. Her remains were interred at Glanadda Cemetery, Ffordd Caernarfon.[2]

There are artworks by Chamberlain in the collections of National Museum Wales, National Library of Wales, Bangor University, Cyfarthfa Castle and Royal Holloway, University of London.[10] There is a collection of her papers, including sketches, letters, poems, photographs, diaries, and unpublished works, in the National Library of Wales.[11]

Kate Holman published an academic biography of Brenda Chamberlain in 1997.[12] Jill Piercy published another biography of Chamberlain in 2013.[1]

Works
  • The Green Heart (1958)
  • Tide-Race (1962) (ISBN 9780907476658)
  • The Water Castle (1964) (ISBN 978-1908069795)
  • A Rope of Vines (1965) (ISBN 9781905762866)
  • Poems with Drawings (1969) (ISBN 0901111066)

Further reading
  • Alun Lewis and the Making of the Caseg Broadsheets, 1969 (ISBN 9780901111074)
  • Kate Holman, Brenda Chamberlain, 1997 (ISBN 9780708310489)
  • Jill Piercy, Brenda Chamberlain, Artist & Writer, 2013 (ISBN 9781906998233)

References
  1. Jill Piercy, Brenda Chamberlain: Artist and Writer (Parthian Books 2013). ISBN 9781906998233
  2. "Brenda Chamberlain" Wales Arts, BBC Cymru Wales.
  3. "Finding Aid – Brenda Chamberlain manuscripts (GB 0210 MSBREAIN)" (PDF). National Library of Wales. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  4. Alison Smith, John Petts and the Caseg Press (Ashgate 1999). ISBN 9780754600343
  5. SH6268: Ty'r mynydd, Mountain Street, Rachub, Geograph.org.uk
  6. "Brenda Chamberlain – 1912-1971". Writers Plaques. Literature Wales. Archived from the original on 23 April 2017.
  7. "Brenda Chamberlain and Bardsey Island" Archived 5 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Bardsey Island Trust.
  8. Peter Lord (2000). The Visual Culture of Wales: Imaging a Nation. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBN 0708315879.
  9. Gold Medal for Fine Art Archived 30 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  10. ArtUK.org, Brenda Chamberlain.
  11. Brenda Chamberlain MSS, National Library of Wales.
  12. Kate Holman, Brenda Chamberlain (University of Chicago Press 1997). ISBN 9780708310489
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