SUFFOLK ARTISTS - Key Persons

Annabel Beverley Mednick was born at Poplar, London in 1959, daughter of Reuben Mednick (born July 1930) and his wife Sheila née Ness, who married at Marylebone, London in 1958. Annabel took an art foundation course at Loughton College 1975-1977, and went on to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1977-1980, Ecole des Arts, Brussels 1997-1999, gaining a Diploma in Fine Art, and at Suffolk College, School of Art 1999-2001, gaining a B.A. (hons) in Fine Art. She carried on drawing and painting whilst still acting, meeting artist William Utermohlen (1933-2007) going to his studio to draw and paint from life. She married at Waltham Forest in 1991, Hugh A. Whittall, director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Annabel is a figurative artist, based in Ipswich, she paints expressive paintings and portraits full of nuances of light, colour, and atmosphere, working in oil on canvas, in an impasto, highly textured style. More recently she has been exploring interiors, the contrast of outside and inside, dark and light, and the contemplation of the lone figure. She also teaches art evening classes at both the Suffolk and Otley colleges. Annabel has exhibited at Byard Art, Cambridge; Buckenham Galleries, Southwold and Pin Mill Studio, Chelmondiston, Ipswich; the Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich; Aldeburgh Gallery, Suffolk; Hicks Gallery, Wimbledon, London; Galerie St Fiacre, Nantes, France; Suffolk Open Studios and elsewhere.

Annie McLean was born in North Lanarkshire, and left school with a Scottish Higher Level in Art A but is primarily a self-taught multi-media artist in oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolour with drawings in pen, pencil, or charcoal. She married in the mid 1970s and moved to raise her four daughters in Oxfordshire. In 2002 Annie moved to East Anglia and, after a time, established herself as an artist in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk but continued with her 'day job'. In October 2014 she returned to live in Scotland and is now settled in Kirriemuir, Angus from where she is building her practice and studio, working as a professional artist. Her favourite subjects include landscape, still life composition, portraits, drawing from life and some contemporary work. Annie's inspiration comes from life although on occasions she does work from imagination, but her specialist area is in landscapes, particularly of the Southwold area where she lived for several years and Scotland. A former member of Suffolk Open Studios with a studio at 4 Springfield, Keens Lane, Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk but now of the Angus Open Studios. She has exhibited at Suffolk Open Studios Showcase Exhibition and The Upstairs Gallery at Beccles, Suffolk and has a permanent exhibition at Ainetheon Art Centre, a small Gallery Shop and Studio in the historical town of Kirriemuir in Angus, Scotland.

Emma Rose Mead, known as Rose Mead, was born at 15 Hatter Street, Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk on 4 December 1867, daughter and youngest of the six sons and two daughters of Samuel Mead (4 May 1825-24 May 1895), a master house decorator employing several men, and his wife Emma née Smith (11 March 1826-6 January 1919), who married at St James's Church, Bury St Edmund's on 31 July 1846. By 1881 Samuel, with his wife and two of his children including Emma Rose, had retired to 32 Clapham Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk. Rose studied at Bury St Edmund's Science and Art Classes from where in 1884, she is noted as passing her art examinations and from about 1885 Rose studied for five years at the Lincoln School of Art and exhibited at the [[Bury St Edmunds [and West Suffolk] Fine Art Society,4385]] in 1889, a watercolour 'Interior of St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmund's'. In 1891 Rose was a 23-year-old art student, lodging at Clifton Villa Cottage, St Johns Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, her 37-year-old brother Arthur, a bank clerk, was also lodging at this address, which was the home of Henry Gouger, a carpenter, and his family. At that time Rose was a student at Westminster School of Art in London under Frederick Brown (1851-1941), before his appointment as Professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, after which she spent a year in Paris at Académie Delécluse, exhibiting a pastel portrait at the Paris Salon. Rose lived in London for a brief time before returning to Bury St Edmund's and in 1901 was living at 18 Crown Street, nursing her elderly mother, who died in 1919, aged 92. Rose painted local studies from her studio at her home where she established a busy local practice for portraits and townscapes, using the name Rose Mead, probably to avoid confusion with her mother. A painter in oil and watercolour of portraits and personalities, Rose Mead exhibited at the Royal Academy also showing two pictures at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, two at the Royal Cambrian Academy and three at the Society of Women Artists. She exhibited at the Suffolk Art and Aid Association in 1908 and was a member of the Ipswich Art Club 1925-1939, exhibiting from 18a Crown Street, Bury St Edmund's in 1927, eight works 'Pinks', 'The Place, St Martin's Vesubie', 'Gattieres', 'Carros', 'The Blue Shop', 'Balconies in St Martin Vésubie', 'Venanson, Near St Martin Vésubie' and 'Autumn in the Alpes-Maritimes' and was a regular annual exhibitor and at the centenary exhibition of the Art Club in 1974 her oil 'Cottage Interior' was on display. In her later years she lived at St Edmund's Hotel on Angel Hill and when she failed to return to the hotel, on investigation was found in the hallway of her studio at 18a Crown Street, from a fall downstairs and she died from a fractured skull on 28 March 1946, she was unmarried. A large retrospective exhibition was held in Bury St Edmund's in 1955 showing 93 of her paintings.

Robert Alister Strand was born at Kingston, Surrey on 4 March 1922, son of Alister Carmichael Strand (18 June 1891-6 December 1973), artist & teacher, and his wife Jane née McArthur (7 March 1892-16 June 1967), who married at Kingston in 1921 and in 1939 were living at 14 Lismore Road, Croydon. On leaving Christ's Hospital School in 1938, having passed the National Drawing Examination, Robert was accepted at the Croydon School of Art and in 1941 passed the entrance examination for the Royal College of Art but war service intervened, and he served as an officer in the Royal West Kent Regiment serving with distinction in Burma. After demobilisation he studied at the Royal College of Art in the painting school, spending some time in the school of engraving. In 1949 he was appointed assistant teacher of art at Horsham School of Art and several art teaching positions followed. He married at Cheadle, Staffordshire in 1954, Kathleen Molly Strand née Craddock, and the following year was appointed deputy principal of Stoke-on-Trent School of Art. In 1961 there was a return to the south-east when appointed Principal of Epsom School of Art where he remained for some nine years. When the Council for National Academic Awards was formed in 1974, Strand was appointed Registrar for Art and Design, playing a major role in the development of degree and postgraduate qualifications in these areas. He retired in 1982, having been awarded an OBE, and settled at Middleton, Suffolk where he continued his painting and wood engraving. A founder member of the Suffolk Group of Artists and produced a substantial amount of work during his time at Middleton and served as vice-president of Southwold Art Circle. Robert Alister Strand died at Middleton, Saxmundham on 26 February 2009 and his wife, known as Molly, died the following year leaving a son and a daughter.

Robert Mendham was born at Church Street, Eye, Suffolk on 22 August 1792, eighth child of a family of six brothers, a daughter, and twins who died young, of James Mendham (c1751-23 June 1804), coachbuilder, and his wife Mary née Harrison (c1749-17 February 1830), who married at Walsham le Willows, Suffolk on 23 April 1778. On 19 March 1808, Robert was apprenticed for six years to the family coach building & wheelwright business at Eye, being freed in March 1814. In 1819 he went to London and studied at the Royal Academy Schools and was living at 12 Parliament Street, Westminster in 1821. He exhibited regularly at the Norwich Society of Artists from 1823, when he showed three pictures including 'A Study of Rembrandt', until at least 1833 when he exhibited four portraits. All his siblings died unmarried, and he inherited the family business at Eye and left London for Eye and announced on 8 April 1845 'that he intends in resuming the business of coach-making carried on by him and his late brothers for many years.' He also retained a business at Eye as an artist and is also recorded as a varnish and japan manufacturer. He married at Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk on 9 September 1830, Anne Cater (1807-1882), daughter of farmer Jeremiah Cater and his wife Mary née Tricker of Walsham le Willows, and they had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Mendham painted animals, portraits and still life, one of his best portraits is that of Bernard Barton (1784-1849), the Quaker poet of Woodbridge. He seems to given up the coach building business when a sale of the entire stock of new and second-hand carriages and effects were offered at auction on 24-25 May 1853. Artist at Church Street, Eye 1846-1869 from where he exhibited a further portrait at the Royal Academy in 1858 also showing four works at the British Institution including ‘The Affectionate Dog' and ‘The Miser', between 1821 and 1858 from London or Eye, he also exhibited at the Suffolk Fine Arts Association exhibition held at the New Lecture Hall of the Mechanics' Institute in Ipswich in August 1850, several oil paintings including 'Portrait of a Lady' and 'A Portrait of the Rev Mr Hepworth'. Robert Mendham died at Eye on 14 March 1875, aged 82, being survived by his wife Anne who died on 30 June 1882, aged 75, both being buried in Eye Cemetery. Their 91-year-old unmarried daughter Elizabeth Mary, died at the family home on 23 August 1938 and his self-portrait showing him with his artist's palette and that of Bernard Barton were in her possession at her death.

Susan L. Mendelsson was born at Hackney, London in 1955, daughter of Wolfgang Mendelsson (5 May 1930-2000) and his wife Eva Judith née Cohn (born March 1931), who married at Hackney in 1954. Susie was educated at Manchester Metropolitan University, gaining a B.A. (hons.) in Graphic Design then took her Teaching Diploma in Art from the University of Haifa, Israel and an M.A. in Fine Art from Coventry University in 2001. Originally a painter but since 2010 has been making models of the human figure from paper, wood, wire, and recycled materials. Influenced by the German expressionists as well as medieval art and worked in paint and mixed media, using paper, wood, wire, and recycled materials, working in a variety of media for different projects. Most of the materials that she uses have been discarded, such as unwanted dolls, magazines that have been read, items from second-hand shops, lost toys. These objects embody their own past and private history which has been abandoned by their owners which she then enhances and draw this past out by reconfiguration and distortion. She married at Westminster, London in 1986, Stephen J. Kickler but continues to work under the name of Susie Mendelsson. In September 2010, she moved to Woodbridge, Suffolk and whilst waiting for her new studio to be completed began to explore 3D female figures made from paper. She had solo exhibitions at Courtyard Gallery, Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry and Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester; The Loft Theatre, Leamington Spa; Warwick University Library Gallery; Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal and Moulton, Northampton; Woodbridge Library, Suffolk and the Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich, as well as numerous mixed exhibitions throughout the UK and abroad including From the Studio Floor at Studio 3, Ipswich Town Hall. Susie donated a work to the 'Westhall Secret Postcard Auction in 2012 'Children of the World' and in 2013 a collage 'Boys & Girls Come Out to Play'. A former member of Suffolk Open Studios from her studio at 46 Old Barrack Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk.