A look into the life and work of a significant artist and illustrator.

Writers: Chloë Cheese, Iris Weaver, Martin Salisbury, Florence Shaw, Walter Hoyle and George Saumarez Smith

Published by Random Spectacular ISBN 978-1-7396308-5-0

Paperback edition (£18.50) and hardback edition (£27.50) available here

Review by Derek Brazell

As the world slowly embraces female artists who should have received more notice and acclaim in their lifetimes (and after), it is positive to see the life and works of Sheila Robinson being highlighted in this visually delightful book published to coincide with an exhibition of her work alongside that of her daughter, AOI Patron, Chloë Cheese at the Fry Art Gallery. Sheila achieved success as a printmaker and illustrator and has been featured in other publications over time, and her work is closely associated with the Great Bardfield group of artists (in Essex), who included good friends Edward Bawden and Olive Cook.

The vibrant lino and cardboard cuts Sheila produced for commissions for a range of clients, including the Post Office and BBC School Radio, are interspersed throughout the book with her subtle and atmospheric prints. All created with a beautifully observational eye.

Benefitting from her on the spot presence, the creative and domestic life of Sheila is detailed by her daughter Chloë, who recalls their life with brother Ben in the house decorated with Sheila’s wallpaper designs in Great Bardfield in the 1950s. She builds an effective sense of the tensions Sheila dealt with being a single mother – following her divorce from Bernard Cheese – supporting her young family and the practical side of being a full time creator working in the hands-on medium of print making. Chloë remembers her using her feet for pressing down for printing due to the small space that she had in her cottage studio, but always producing prints of high quality.

Although considering herself primarily an illustrator – who created work for Schweppes, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a range of publishers amongst others – the increase in exhibiting prints in the Great Bardfield village show and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition expanded the importance of print making for her. Alongside lino Shelia was an expert at printing from cardboard, a technique she pioneered, and visual creators will find it interesting to see photographs of the card blocks and the highly textural prints that she produced from that medium.

Alongside the comments on Sheila’s artwork, Chloë’s warm recollections bring a true sense of the person behind the artwork, offering a backstory to many of the prints which were frequently inspired by interiors, landscapes (and cats, which sold well) of the village and surrounding countryside. Reading, you get a sense of the period and the quirks of village life along with that of a person devoted to her work. The cycle of the family’s creativity is demonstrated with the inclusion of some of Chloë prints as well as texts from Sheila’s granddaughter, artist and member of Dry Cleaning, Florence Shaw.

Collector of Sheila’s works, architect George Suamarez Smith, describes her pictures as calming, ‘opening, as they do, into a world of gentle and unspoilt beauty’, but adds that her work is ‘often daring in its technique, composition and use of colour’ – a perceptively accurate description.

Sheila became unwell from around 1980, and Chloë recollects that she began to lose confidence in her work as demand for her prints faded. All the more positive that this collection of her work, and reminisces of Sheila’s life, has been published to maintain her position as a significant artist and illustrator. 

See also BAWDEN, RAVILIOUS AND THE ARTISTS OF GREAT BARDFIELD – BOOK REVIEW