The Pinery is a collection of original artworks (116 Pieces) produced by Brenda Mary Watson. Brenda’s commercial art is now managed by the Pineapple Gallery, where time limited leases can be purchased to reproduce her designs in the current market. Many of the themes and colours, avant-garde in the 1950’s with its arts and crafts influences, are back in vogue at the time of writing. Orders from her work in wallpapers and other textile products can now be ordered at the Pineapple Gallery - info@thepineapplegallery.uk and on Shopify at the Pinery at Pineapple Gallery.

History

Brenda Mary Watson (who traded as Bren Leam Design) was born in Ilford, Essex in 1928. After evacuation in wartime, her parents settled permanently in Harbury, near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Brenda was talented in music and art, and was very much influenced by the work of William Morris as a young artist. On the strength of her portfolio, she was offered an unconditional place at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in Bloomsbury, London, where she studied from 1947-50 under Miss Batty, Hans Tisdall and John Minton, and was a contemporary of Terrence Conran who founded Habitat. 

Seizing opportunities of post-war enterprise, Brenda took her skills into the commercial sector, travelling as an independent young woman into a man’s world to promote her designs as a freelance textile and wallpaper designer. Brenda represented her college at many exhibitions and won prizes for her commercial designs, with her ongoing success leading to her entry in Who’s Who in Art (1954, 7th Edition). Among her achievements were to exhibit at the centenary 1951 Exhibition of Britain on the London Southbank was the presentation of her heritage collection depicting Stonehenge, which was displayed as a dress in Liberty London at the time of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 

After marriage and motherhood, Brenda (now Gibbons) ceased trading and after a raising five children, worked from home on textile icons. Her designs in this her second phase of creative output consisted of fabric collages on biblical scenes and textile icons of the life of Christ which were commissioned and hung in cathedrals around the world from Australia to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. These are also in the Pineapple Gallery collection and are available on request.