Sheila Fell

Sheila Fell (20 July 1931 – 15 December 1979) was an English artist. She was born in Aspatria, Cumberland, in 1931. Although she lived in London for the greater part of her life, she devoted her career to painting the Cumberland landscape.

Biography

Early life Sheila Fell was born into a poor household at Aspatria in 1931, the only child of John (Jack) and Anne Fell. Her father was a coal miner who worked at the Brayton Domain Colliery about a mile and a half from Aspatria. Her mother was a seamstress. When Fell was young her father lost his job at Brayton and, after working at other pits and suffering a serious leg injury, ceased to look for work entirely. In December 1955, she appeared on the ten-minute 'Highlight' television programme, which spotlighted the personalities of the day. She joined the teaching staff of Chelsea School of Art in 1958. She would never return to live permanently in Cumberland but she frequently visited her family there, and its landscape dominated her work for the rest of her life.

Although never married, Fell had a daughter Anna in 1958, by the Greek sculptor Takis Vassilakis.

Style and influences Fell used powerful, melancholy oils of living landscape, presided over by huge brooding mountains and dark looming clouds. Colour was always less important than tone, she painted the hills and the seas of the area she loved so well, she painted the earth and those who worked it, depicting rich brown soils, piles of potatoes, small groups of driven cattle, indistinguishable farm buildings and terraced houses running along the streets of Aspatria. Her obituary writer in The Times described her work, by relating back to her childhood in Cumberland, as having both ethical and aesthetic weight. However, by the time the article appeared she was already dead. The inquest into her death reported that she had died of alcohol poisoning, on 15 December, at her London flat. She was 48 years of age.

Legacy

Fell's paintings have continued to attract interest in auction houses. A sale of three paintings in 2025, held by the estate of a family friend in Hexham, came to a total of £50,000, when two of them had been originally purchased from the artist for relatively modest sums. The auctioneer said afterwards: “The strength of bidding for Sheila Fell confirms her place at the forefront of 20th century British art. These results reflect the growing recognition of her unique vision and the rarity of her work.” In 1959, she received a 'Boise' travelling scholarship. Although she travelled extensively throughout Italy, Greece, Switzerland and France the period was not a success. As she told one enquirer: "I have an obsession about Cumberland. I have tried painting in other parts of the world, particularly Greece, but it just doesn't work." In 1967, she was awarded an Arts Council Purchase Award. In 1969 she was elected Associate Member of the Royal Academy and a full membership five years later, at a time when there were relatively female academicians.

Haste, Cate, (2010), Sheila Fell: A Passion For Paint Lund Humphries