Sylvia and Elsie by Sylvia Forward

We are delighted to present this retrospective of work by Sylvia Forward, a highly original artist and longstanding Malmesbury resident.

 Sylvia Forward was born in 1926 in Pencoed in South Wales, the daughter of Dorothy Soper. She attended Cardiff Art School where she met Colin Forward, who she married in 1948. She moved to Malmesbury in 1950 and lived here until her death in October 1996.

 Sylvia had six children, and first started knitting in order to clothe them. She became very skilled at intricate work and began to design her own patterns.

 In 1979 Sylvia suffered a massive stroke, which left her partly paralysed. She continued to knit, but her designs became looser and more abstract. She began to sell her jumpers, from a shop in Bath. Glenda Jackson was the purchaser of one of Sylvia’s early jumpers.  Later she sold more jumpers through Allard Tobin, a Malmesbury resident, to people in London, Paris and the United States. She continued to knit for her children, friends and local people.

 She began to paint in the eighties, selling her work through Malmesbury Art Society exhibitions. She painted local scenes and still lifes, as well as the occasional portrait of dogs and cats. Her work is very colourful, her style bold and expressive. She was very original, with a great sense of humour. She decorated hundreds of envelopes in which she sent letters to children and friends. Each envelope is a work of art in its own right, treasured by the recipients.

 Sylvia was active in local disability groups and a Quaker. Her life and work was last celebrated in a memorial exhibition at Malmesbury Library in February 1997, so it is a privilege for Caerbladon to present a selection of her work.

 Special thanks to the Forward family and David, Lynne and Emily Witt for making this exhibition possible.