SEDDON, BEATRICE (1889-1987)

"Mixed Bunch (Rhododendrons, Hyacinths, Tulips & Lillies)" (1940) 
watercolour
55 X 72cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Beatrice Anne Seddon (nee Wood) is a forgotten New Zealand Watercolourist & friend & muse of Frances Hodgkins. She was educated at Rangi Ruru Girls' School, attended a finishing school in England, & then returned to Christchurch to attend art school under the tutelage of Sydney Thompson & Margaret Stoddart. During World War I she served as a volunteer ambulance driver at Codford on Salisbury Plain, & this role included caring for recuperating officers. After contracting measles at Codford, Seddon went on holiday to St Ives, Cornwall where she met & befriended artist Frances Hodgkins, & while in St Ives, Hodgkins painted a portrait of Seddon, Portrait of Miss Beatrice Wood, 1918. Seddon painted and exhibited throughout her lifetime, with many of her works inspired by her garden. She had lessons with Frances Hodgkins in London from 1914–19. An enthusiastic gardener, many of her paintings were inspired by the camellias & rhododendrons in her own garden at Wadestown Road, Wellington.  She was successful with selling many of her paintings to help with the family finances after the depression years. She became well known as an artist and in 1971 Beatrice travelled to Norfolk, England to view an exhibition of Flower Paintings of the World where one of her own flower studies had been selected by the National Art Gallery to represent New Zealand. Beatrice also enjoyed portraying the New Zealand landscape, particularly the West Coast of the South Island and her childhood home, Canterbury. She travelled the North & South Islands on painting holidays and with her artist’s eye, she was always looking to recreate the countryside which she loved. Her works are represented in major institutions including Te Papa.