We wanted to share the work of Mary Fedden, and why her artwork is such an inspiration to StudioEWE. Her paintings of sheep resting in open fields, set against the vivid greens and soft blue skies of the British countryside, feel deeply familiar to us. Her style was bold and joyful — vivid colours, simplified forms, and a wonderful ability to capture a sense of place through her own distinctive approach to still life painting. Influenced by Matisse and Braque, her work was always warmly her own, with brilliantly executed still lifes and landscape imagery that continue to resonate long after first glance.
Mary & Yorkshire
Mary had a stepson who farmed sheep in Yorkshire, and she would visit him regularly. It was during these stays that she captured the pastoral scenes that resonate so deeply with us: sheep lying quietly in the grass, the wide moorland sky above them, and the colours of the land shifting through cream, ochre, sage and stone. She worked from pencil sketches made outdoors, then returned to her studio to paint — a process that gave her the freedom to interpret form, colour and light rather than simply record it.
For a brand built on British wool and inspired by the Yorkshire landscape, her work captures something we feel instinctively: that the sheep belong to this land, and the land belongs to them.
Mary Fedden | HIGHLAND SHEEP, 1992 | Portland Gallery
Inspiring Sources at Studio EWE
When we're developing new colourways for our knitwear, we often find ourselves drawn to that same sensibility — pulling out the rich shades of the landscape around us. The chartreuse greens of the moorland grass, the soft ecru whites of fleece, the grounding darker tones of earth and stone. Fedden understood instinctively that the most enduring colours are already there in the landscape. That's the same belief that we try to capture through our colour choices and pieces at StudioEWE.
Portland Gallery in London continue to represent her work. If you'd like to explore her paintings further, we'd recommend visiting Portland Gallery or the Tate's artist page — both wonderful starting points.
Mary Fedden | SHEPHERD (1987) | Mutual Art
Banner Image - Mary Fedden | Sheep 1980 | Christies
At StudioEWE, everything we make is crafted from 100% British wool. We believe that where something comes from matters — in art, and in knitwear.
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