A painter, and also a teacher, Mary Fedden was born in Bristol, and studied at Slade School of Fine Art, as a scholar, 1932-6. Mary Fedden was the first woman tutor at the Royal College of Art between 1958 and 64, and from 1965 to 1970 at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She was a member of London Group from 1962 1964, and participated in many other mixed shows.

 

Solo shows included Redfern Gallery from 1953, Hamet Gallery from 1970, Heal’s Mansard Gallery, Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol and elsewhere in the provinces. She had a major exhibition at Royal West of England Academy in 1988, by which time she had been its president for several years. Mary Fedden was elected RA in 1992.

 

She has completed  mural commissions including Festival of Britain in 1951, the P&O Liner Canberra in 1961, one with her husband, Julian Trevelyan, at Charing Cross Hospital in 1980, and one for Colindale Hospital, 1985. Mary Fedden is noted for her domestic, modest-sized still lifes, rich in colour and with an immaculate pattern element. Her work is in the collections of HM The Queen, the Chantrey Bequest for Tate Callery and the Contemporary Art Society.