Painter who used to work on wartime portraits of the Queen exhibits in Radlett (From Watford Observer)

Painter who used to work on wartime portraits of the Queen exhibits in Radlett

2:57pm Thursday 9th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A hip injury may have prevented 85-year-old artist Freda Waddell from getting out and about, but it certainly hasn’t stopped her from painting, as visitors to The Radlett Centre will discover. Her exhibition features 30 varied works ranging from landscapes and still lifes, to individual studies and abstracts.

Freda, who has lived in Ruislip and then in Rickmansworth for the past 30 years, has been a professional artist since she was in her 20s.

There were these black and white pictures of the Queen that came in. I did 60 portraits of her with her pearls

Freda Waddell

“I started painting when I was four years old,” recalls Freda. “I can remember getting a prize in school, but it’s just one of my gifts I suppose, I can’t add up things.”

Freda tells me she is entirely self-taught and her early career involved putting the finishing touches to propaganda posters during World War Two.

“I did commercial work in Kings Cross; airbrushing all sorts of things within that bracket right through the war. Then, when we got bombed we moved to Hampstead and had three studios for commercial advertising.

“There were these black and white pictures of the Queen that came in. I did 60 portraits of her with her pearls and also ones of Sir Alexander Fleming. I did about 40 of him. I can always remember when the war was on we made these huge posters in a warehouse with hundreds of soliders on them that had to be painted in. That kept me quiet for a long time.”

Freda has held previous exhibitions in Gerrards Cross and her last major show was in Ruislip. Her works have gone on display in the Harlequin Shopping Centre when she was a member of Watford Area Arts Forum.

She works in a wide spectrum of media including watercolour, oils and acrylic.

“I like to work across a really wide variety of subjects including abstracts. My work is very colourful. I don’t think animals are my thing. I’ve done several views, pictures of a mother and child, seascape and a ballerina. It just comes to me. I have a small studio and I won’t come out of it really.”

Having had two hip operations, Freda says she has reduced mobility.

“I walk with a limp of course and at the age I am, I’m likely to have to move as I live on the top of the hill. My son thinks I ought not to be driving, but I do drive very carefully.

“Before my hip problems happened I really did get about but I had an operation at a private hospital and they made a real mess of it. On my last consultation the man who had done the job dropped out and I haven’t seen him since. My second operation was at Watford General Hospital and they have been really marvellous.”

Despite her health problems, Freda has really pushed to get the show together.

“I’ve worked very, very hard from March until three weeks ago. My son Ian has encouraged me to do it. He said: ‘Come on mother you’ve got to get on with it and do some paintings’, so I’ve worked from morning to night. I need a good rest now.”

Freda’s exhibition runs until Saturday, July 25 at The Radlett Centre, Aldenham Avenue, Radlett. Details: 01923 859291

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)