Brenda Chamberlain Rolf on Welsh Art

I'm on a wonderful Welsh adventure as I discover more

about four outstanding artists influenced by this great land.

During the series, as a tribute to them,

I'll be creating drawings and paintings inspired by their art.

I'm going to have to create in ways I've never done before.

And at the end of it I'll probably turn to you and I'll say,

"Can you tell what it is yet?"

We're on our way to a magical island off the coast of North Wales

to discover more about a little-known Welsh artist whose drawings

and paintings have been a secret for far too long.

This artist was one of a kind

and her amazing art marked her out

as one of the best of her generation.

She combined painting with words and music and used brilliant

blocks of colour in a unique style that was original and special.

I'm on my way on a journey of discovery to find out

more about the art

and the personal tragedy of a fantastically talented artist,

Brenda Chamberlain.

Why don't we know more about Brenda Chamberlain?

Well, if I'm going to paint a half decent tribute painting in her style

I need to find out why

she has been airbrushed out of the art history books.

Next stop, the city where it all began.

She was born in Bangor in 1912,

painting and creating in this house,

which was sort of like an artistic haven.

Brenda embraced the free spirits who roamed the streets here

searching for their next piece of inspiration.

Growing up in traditional North Wales,

she desperately tried to be more arty, upbeat and trendy.

Her parents supported her through art school

but they were a bit shocked by her wild, bohemian lifestyle.

And it was the influence of a strong mother

and a stern father that was to have the biggest impact on young Brenda.

At every opportunity, she would try

and escape from her stuffy conventional home life.

And it certainly didn't take me long

to find a few unconventional free sprits on the pier in Bangor.

# Didn't we have a wonderful time the day we went to Bangor?

# We had fun on the way

# And all for under a pound A dollar, you know

# On the way back, I cuddled with Jack... #

'Amazingly, in Brenda's time, Bangor had an international reputation

'for being the hip and happening city for all things arty.'

After a few years, Brenda left for art college and the bright lights

of London where she met and married fellow artist John Petts.

They ran off to North Wales together to live here in this cottage,

Tyr Mynydd, near Bangor.

I headed off there with someone who knew Brenda,

historian Ceridwen Lloyd Morgan,

to find out how her passionate relationship

with John Petts dramatically affected Brenda and her art.

Oh, yes.

Here's the original fireplace.

Let me try and pronounce it before you go any further.

ROLF READS INSCRIPTION

"Let there be peace in this house."

And I think it's John Petts who carved that

while he and Brenda were living here.

Brenda and John set up a printing press to create

revolutionary art magazines with etchings and wood carvings.

And the wonderful poetry

and literature was dripping with Brenda's unique artistic flair.

The idea was to bring art to the people.

This meant that they wanted to have something affordable,

that people could buy.

The Penillion folk verses which were originally probably sung

to harp accompaniment.

I know a great Penillion to The Ash Grove. I don't know the words.

Oh, right.

ROLF HUMS

Do the tune for me.

THEY SING IN HARMONY

Oh dear, sorry I went off tune at the end.

-I don't care.

-Good.

-Nice Penillion.

-Right.

And where was the press?

Well, I think they were working mainly downstairs,

which would be through that door, I assume.

But the pressure of two artists

living and working together became too much and their relationship fell apart.

It's very difficult when you are an artist,

and as single minded an artist as Brenda always was,

to compromise in any way,

and I think she found it very difficult to deal with the compromises

that are required in maintaining a long-term relationship, perhaps.

Brenda was heartbroken and needed to escape.

She feared her parents would be incensed by the scandal

of her failed marriage, so she fled the cottage.

She became instantly drawn to the promise of solitude

and safety on Bardsey Island, 40 miles down the coast from Bangor.

It was here that Brenda produced

some of her most spectacular works of art,

but I'd heard that it all came at great personal cost to Brenda.

I just had to get to Bardsey to unlock the secrets

of this magical island.

Well, I know a little bit about Brenda's early life

so it's time for me to start my tribute painting.

The question is, what am I going to put in it?

Obviously I should go to Bardsey Island

if I want to be inspired the way Brenda was.

But I've heard that it can be a tricky place to get to

if the weather should turn rough.

What you need is a skipper you can trust.

Ahoy there, Captain Colin.

Hey, Rolf. How are you?

Good, take me to Bardsey.

I couldn't wait to get to Bardsey to soak up the same atmosphere

that influenced Brenda

and meet the people who knew her well to find out what happened to her.

On the short journey over I got chatting to skipper Colin Evans.

He comes from a family of fishermen who have lived on the island

and fished off the waters here for over 300 years.

I asked him what to expect.

The island's quite unique, really. It's still a living place.

It's still a working farm, and in a way it hasn't changed much since Brenda's time.

It was... There's less people living there,

but in terms of the way the island looks

and the atmosphere, I don't suppose it is that different.

It's a fantastic place to live in, in many ways, and I challenge you

not to feel spiritually enlightened when you get onto the island.

It was the beauty and simplicity of Bardsey that led Brenda

to produce her most spectacular and popular paintings.

She began to use bold, solid colours

and her art reflected the islanders' way of life, portraying them

with an innocent beauty that was totally original.

When they were shown in London during the 1960s, people loved them.

Brenda won first prize twice

in three years at the National Eisteddfod,

which was unheard of at the time.

Hello, Moll. Hello, Moll.

I've arranged to meet Colin's mother, an award-winning poet

who lives on the island, Christine Evans.

Well, it's a marvellous-looking place.

Right from the time I saw Christine and the dog

walking along the skyline there.

Magic feeling.

Ah, come and meet my mother. This is Christine Evans, my mother.

-She's been here for many years.

-Hello, what a pleasure to meet you.

I want to find out as much as I can about Brenda's time here.

I'll tell you what I know.

I'm hoping Christine can be my guide to the wonders of Bardsey.

She's researched all about Brenda's life on the island

and the way it influenced her and her art.

What inspired Brenda?

Well, everything about the island, I think.

And because it was an island.

She'd come from the middle of land,

living up in the mountains near Bangor.

Yeah.

And here, surrounded by sea and the moods of the sea, and the different

creatures that you come across, the whole of nature.

Perhaps, particularly, the nights are so different here.

In what way?

Well, you feel very close to the stars

because there's no light pollution.

And it's a secure place, it's a haven, but you're surrounded

by the wilderness and wilds of nature,

and that's what she started to paint.

As well, of course, as her neighbours

and the relationships going on on the island as well.

When Brenda first arrived in 1947, life was hard.

She was still recovering from the break-up of her marriage

and with very little money left,

Brenda was unable to buy materials and paint.

But that didn't stop her.

She took to drawing on the walls of her own home

to keep that creative spark alive.

Amazingly, some of these murals still exist.

And Christine took me to see them at Carreg Cottage,

the place where Brenda lived for 14 years.

One of the things Brenda said about this house is it's full of light,

and you can see that.

Very strong use of colour, isn't there?

Yes, and a nice line, too, gutsy.

-Yeah, the curve of that boat.

-Strong.

You see how the light comes in here.

You can imagine her sitting here painting, coming out of her studio and painting.

I think she said nearly all the walls in the house have been

covered in paint, have got paintings on them.

I think she said, not so much for decoration as because,

you know, she had problems getting canvas.

So you feel the urge to paint something or plan a picture,

as of course we can be cut off here for weeks at a time.

Yeah, and canvas that size, that's a huge...

Brenda was truly inspired by Bardsey

and she quickly began capturing the wildlife and the islanders

at work struggling to survive in this barren and desolate place.

If my tribute is going to be any way near half decent,

I just have to start experiencing the wonders for myself

and get it all down in my sketch book.

SEAL HONKS

ROLF MIMICS SEAL

Brenda loved painting local fishermen

and while on Bardsey she produced

one of her most famous paintings, The Man With The John Dory.

Christine introduced me to her husband Ernest,

the local lobster fisherman and it gave me an idea.

How are you?

I'm very well, and you?

I thought I'd ask him to take me out for a trip on his boat

to see him at work and hopefully get some ideas for my tribute painting.

So how long has your family been fishing this area?

Oh, the fishing effort has been the same here for generations, I expect.

The same number of pots being lifted.

OK, there's less of us fishing now, just me.

Did you actually know Brenda?

Yes, I was quite small when she was here, sort of ten, twelvish,

I think, that sort of age.

You knew of her, rather than personally.

I knew of her rather than, yes, yeah.

Watching Ernest and the lobsters

and seeing him working the boat

and thinking back over the generations of fishermen before him,

I think I can see how...

..Brenda Chamberlain

would've been inspired to do paintings of the local fishermen.

Do you reckon it'd be OK to try

and do a painting of you in the style of Brenda Chamberlain?

Yes, I suppose.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Very good.

Well, I've found a lovely spot near the harbour

and positioned my subject, Ernest.

I've decided to base my tribute

on Brenda's classic paintings of fishermen.

But what's really worrying me is whether I'll be able to capture

her terrific use of colour,

shapes and that special bond she had with the islanders.

Get that, the edge of that waterproof trouser thing there.

-What do they call them?

-Chest waders.

Ah good, chest waders. Good.

I'll use that as the darkest colour.

Brenda Chamberlain seemed to do very simplistic colours.

Flat blocks of colour.

And so I want to try and do the same sort of thing with Ernest here.

And there's a couple of gorgeous lines that go down there.

When I say gorgeous, I don't want you to get too excited.

I think I'll do a bit of flesh tone on you now, OK?

I'm going to start putting in some lighter colour on the cap,

the top of the cap.

I'll try some blue, bluey shadows, there.

Yes, it's looking good.

That's good.

You know, Brenda was a fantastic artist

but I understand she had another great passion writing.

And she became almost as obsessed with words as she was with painting.

Now I need to find out about this obsession with words that she had

and see if there's some way that I can get some writing

into my painting.

Quite often Brenda included words and simple letters in her paintings.

Such as these letters in her fabulous painting The Doves.

I was amazed to find that Brenda also wrote a novel

about her time on Bardsey.

It was called Tide-race.

The book sold thousands.

It was sort of island fantasy-cum-soap opera

and it mixed up the real goings on

with made up yarns about the actual people who lived there.

It was a recipe for disaster.

The islanders were furious

and it left Brenda's relationship with them in tatters.

I asked Christine to take me back to Brenda's study,

to tell me how one little book could cause such a storm.

So this is the famous Tide-race I've heard so much about.

Yes, this is the book she wrote.

What was the islanders' reaction to this book when it came out?

I think they felt just, in a sense, betrayed.

The islanders didn't like being written about,

even when they came off well, like my mother-in-law.

And the only thing that was said about her

was that she was pigeon-breasted.

She never forgave Brenda for that.

Yeah, understandable.

What Brenda included devastated the islanders.

It exposed to the world some pretty private personal secrets

and there was one tragic event that was particularly upsetting.

A baby died, aged three months old, in Cristin -

which is now the bird observatory,

and nobody ever spoke about this. And it was terrible weather and he had to be buried on the island

and in fact Brenda said the words over his grave.

The islanders felt she shouldn't have mentioned it.

-It was something they wanted to keep among themselves.

-Yeah.

Brenda didn't come back after it was published.

And do you think Tide-race brought a close to Brenda's time on Bardsey?

Yes, I do, I think. I think she'd finished with the island, in a sense.

She'd taken everything she needed from it, and she had moved on,

and I think she probably did feel that she had in some sense betrayed confidences

and trusts in respect of that.

-Didn't dare come back, perhaps.

-Possibly.

Her book has certainly shown me how important words were to Brenda

and I've got to try and include some letters or writing

in my tribute painting

if I'm going to do her justice.

But where am I going to get them from?

I'm beginning to realise that Brenda felt

she could paint pictures with words

just as well as she could with a brush.

And here on Bardsey she tried to capture the relationship

between people and nature both in her paintings

and in her writing.

And I've decided that I've got to get some writing

into this picture somehow.

Either words or just individual letters.

I asked Ernest's wife Christine to do me a favour.

Don't ask me who it is or I'll thump you!

Christine's a local poet

and she's written a verse for me about Ernest's life as a fisherman.

"He rides the swell with shoulders square and feet set firm

"Focused on the coiling rope

"The snatch, the haul and lift as the tide delivers

"Part of the flow of the Earth's slow turn."

That's lovely. The hands callu... What is the line?

The line is, "His palms plated with callus,"

because of these pads of callus.

Ah, plated with callus.

"Each finger muscled." Muscled.

Is that Maria Callas?

-Yes, of course.

-Of course.

-Each finger muscled to grip the mackerel and the lobsters.

-OK.

Look at those muscley fingers.

-They are, they are.

-Yes.

-Grasp it.

Ouch!

Hearing Christine's poem was really inspirational

but how can I get those words into my painting?

Let's see if I can crack it.

OK, now the sky goes right across there,

and I'm going to try and work out some of the words.

"Part of the flow as the slow Earth turns."

I like that.

Sounds like Victor Silvester, "Quick, quick, slow."

Are you not that old? Not as old as me? Oh, OK!

"Slow Earth, the slow Earth turns."

After Tide-race the islanders felt betrayed.

Brenda was shunned by the community

and forced to leave Bardsey, never to return.

With the money she made from the book, Brenda escaped and headed off somewhere even more exotic,

the Greek island of Hydra where she started producing what many believed

were her most eccentric and obscure paintings.

I need to follow in her footsteps

and I know just the place to go to find out what happened next.

With no expense spared, I've jetted off for a foreign experience

just like Brenda used to do.

Actually, we've saved a bob or two by coming to this Greek taverna in, of all places, Bangor.

On Hydra, Brenda became even more bizarre,

working with dancers and musicians,

combining what she heard with what she painted.

GREEK MUSIC PLAYS

I love retsina. It's really ice cold, it's magic.

I joined some of the people who knew Brenda well

to find out more about how Greece affected her life and her art.

-She was quite a passionate person.

-Yeah?

But very quiet.

She didn't sort of express it outwardly

as being an exuberant personality in any way.

She was quite demure and quiet, wasn't she, really?

But when you say she was passionate, she...

-Passionate with her work.

-She felt strongly?

-Strongly about things. Yes, she did, yes.

-Yes.

To capture the passion of Greek dancers,

she now started painting with her eyes closed,

letting music guide her brush.

But her new Greek paintings were slated by the critics.

Many felt she'd lost her way and perhaps even lost her mind.

Rejected by the art world, Brenda turned back to words,

writing a controversial play called The Protagonists

about the military coup in Greece.

She came to a rehearsal on one occasion, for The Protagonists,

and one of the actors wasn't there, so Brenda read in.

Well, there was no call for this at all, but in order to get into the passion

and feeling she suddenly got hold of her blouse and tore it apart.

So suddenly, Brenda, who was really quite small,

diminutive, quiet,

suddenly there was something else going on. Yes.

After the play, Brenda feared she would be arrested by the military dictatorship

if she ever returned to Greece.

Brenda was forced back to where it all started back to Bangor.

Her art had been rejected and she was now penniless.

Brenda's life began to fall apart and she had a breakdown.

In 1967, she was admitted to hospital suffering from depression.

It was a stigma Brenda's family had trouble coming to grips with.

But I've been told there's one part of her life

that's always been kept in the dark and that is how she died.

Well I've heard all the rumours and the whispers

but I need to know exactly what happened to this wonderfully creative artist.

Brenda lived in a series of flats and Victorian terraced houses

in this long, long street

and I've come to meet up with a very close friend of hers

who lives right here in the middle of it.

Hopefully she can tell us all about Brenda

and the last days of her life.

-Ann?

-Rolf?

It is. How lovely.

Welcome to Menai View Terrace.

Thank you very much. Can you see the Menai?

The lady I've come to see is Ann Cooke.

It's lovely to see some real paintings on walls.

-Oh, yeah, quite a lot around.

-Wow, what a room!

Yes, it's my husband's was my husband's study.

Yes, come in. Here's a Brenda as we go past.

I'm surprised so little is known about Brenda's remarkable work

and I've been told that it may be because of the way she died.

Come and sit down.

Brenda always turned to Ann when she was low

and I know it's going to be tough for her to talk about this,

but I'm hoping Ann will tell me exactly what happened

on that tragic summer's day over 40 years ago.

What I would like to hear from you

is what you said while the cameras weren't rolling earlier on,

about that you will never forget the fact that she turned up on your doorstep

and said, "I've taken an overdose."

July the 8th, 1971.

I remember the time. I was up here in the study...

..the doorbell rang,

and there she was on the doorstep.

She said, "Ann, I've come to be with you."

Ah!

And I thought, "Heavens."

So I put her in the car and we got her down to the hospital.

But she didn't recover.

And I had to go and tell her mother what had happened, which was...

How did she react?

She was stunned. She was totally stunned.

Her brother was just stupefied.

He just couldn't understand that she'd been at the point of despair,

and I think he felt that suicide was just a bit of a social slur really.

Sure.

I feel that Brenda's family probably had real problems

dealing with the social stigma

of her mental health and the fact that she took her own life.

But I'm sad that the truth of Brenda's life

has been hidden for all this time.

How would you like your friend Brenda Chamberlain remembered?

She was quite a delightful person, really. She was...

She was...just lovely.

She was rather a fragile, little person but I was very fond of her

and I think that most of the people I know who were her friends

would say the same thing.

The most special place for Brenda was Bardsey Island.

It was there that this iconic Welsh artist was at her happiest

and where she painted her finest works.

Going on this journey,

I've realised what a wonderful artist Brenda really was.

How she craved a magical location,

inspiring words

and fascinating people to arouse her creative passions.

Get some nice clean white and some nice clean blue together.

Whee, isn't it good?

-You're not fed up yet, are you?

-No, I'm quite happy.

Won't be long now, eh?

"Nice," they cried, "nice."

Wow, it's looking good.

You know, Brenda Chamberlain expressed herself so brilliantly

through her paintings,

and I'm just really saddened by the fact that her personal tragedies

overshadowed her art.

And I just hope that my little tribute

has done something to redress that balance.

Hope so. Let me sign it.

Oh, you're back. Perfect timing. Come and see the finished article.

Finished? Oh!

Ernest, come and join us. See what you think.

It's a lot different with the lighthouse, isn't it? And the words.

And the words.

Yes. I think it's almost epic.

And he's at one with his environment as well, isn't he?

-He's there, part of it.

-I hope so, I think so. Yeah.

And that's what I've always felt about Ernest, really.

Good.

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