Mary Fedden

Mary Fedden was born in Bristol where she attended the city’s Badminton School. At the age of 16, she studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London from 1932 to 1936. Of her time at the Slade, she recalled, ‘after
Badminton, the Slade was like stepping from hell into heaven.’ At the Slade, Fedden was a pupil of the theatre designer, Vladimir Polunin. When she finished her studies, she taught, painted portraits and created stage
designs for Sadler’s Wells Theatre. She then returned to Bristol where she painted and taught until World War
II broke out. During the Second World War, Fedden served in the Women’s Land Army and the Woman’s
Voluntary Service and as a driver for the NAAFI in Europe. She was also commissioned to create murals for
the war effort.
After the war was over, Fedden developed her own style of flower paintings and still lifes, reminiscent of artists
such as Matisse and Braque. ln 1995, she acknowledged in an interview in The Artist magazine: “I really float from influence to influence …. I found the early Ben Nicholsons fascinating as were the paintings
of his wife Winifred. I also admire the Scottish artist Anne Redpath and the French painter Henri Hayden”.
Fedden’s subjects are often executed in a bold, expressive style with vivid, contrasting colours, although her
work of 2005-6 uses a narrower tonal range. Her still lifes are often placed in front of a landscape, as she
enjoyed the contrasting of disparate, even quirky elements. When using watercolours she emphasised the
rough texture of her favourite Indian papers.
A major exhibition of her paintings was held at Bath Art Gallery in 2023. She was married to the artist Julian
Trevelyan R.A. 1910-1988.