Brenda Chamberlain (artist)


Brenda Irene Chamberlain 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.

Early life and education

Chamberlain was born in Bangor, Gwynedd, 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. She studied art at the Royal Academy in London.

Career

Before the Second World War, Chamberlain moved in with the artist John Petts. They married in 1935, but were divorced in 1944. During their time together, they lived in a cottage at Llanllechid and ran the Caseg Press from their home. Chamberlain made woodcuts and broadsheets for the press. The cottage they shared, Ty'r Mynydd, now bears a plaque commemorating their work there.
Chamberlain also produced prose works, including a novel and The Tide Race, a memoir of life at Carreg, Bardsey Island, where she lived and worked from 1947 until 1962. The publication of The Tide Race coincided with a solo exhibition of Chamberlain's paintings at the Zwemmer Gallery in London.
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.

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.
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. There is a collection of her papers, including sketches, letters, poems, photographs, diaries, and unpublished works, in the National Library of Wales.
Kate Holman published an academic biography of Brenda Chamberlain in 1997. Curator Jill Piercy published another biography of Chamberlain in 2013.

Archive

The National Library of Wales holds manuscripts by Brenda Chamberlain in its archive:

Works