This exhibition was a tribute to the work of Madeline Addyman, the gifted painter, printmaker, draughtswoman, teacher and administrator who lived in Narberth for 12 years and died in November last year. In addition to all her other activities she devoted a great deal of energy and time supporting and promoting Oriel Q and was a founder member of The Friends of Oriel Q, so it seems quite fitting that this show should be held here.
A member of the avant-garde Independent Group, after leaving the Royal College
of Art in 1952 Madeline worked as a Display Designer for Simpsons of Piccadilly
and as a freelance Toy Designer for Liberty’s, and continued freelancing when she later moved to Port Talbot. Her subsequent career involved teaching design to college students and primary schools and as Head Teacher for 7 years at Hartest in West Suffolk, where she also became an educational advisor for the county.
In 1987 Madeline moved back to Wales with her husband, the watercolourist the late John Addyman and together they established the Gwndwn Studios at their home in Bridell near Cardigan, where as well as creating prints, she designed kites, experimented with raku pottery and returned to oil painting with a large show at Theatre Mwldan in 1991.
Described as a ‘no-nonsense’ northerner Madeline did not go in for dramatic gestures either in life or in her art. The writer Caroline Juler said, “The poetry of her work lies in the intricacy of her pattern-making and the crystalline sharpness with which she depicted the world around her. Accuracy and economy of line and a restraIned and subtle colour range were hallmarks of her style. She was refreshingly curious in her attitude to form and was as happy drawing intricate machinery as the human body. Madeline was particularly good at architectural subjects, being able to convey complicated perspectives with astonishing, virtually technical precision. “
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