Sheila Bownas: Pattern Designs

The Sheila Bownas collection of hand –painted designs offers a wonderful glimpse into the diverse and changing fashions of pattern during the middle of the 20th century. 

In the collection are nearly 200 hand painted pattern designs dating from the 1950s to the 1970s. The designs were all created by Sheila Bownas (1925 – 2007), a freelance designer who lived and worked in Yorkshire.

Alongside the finished designs are also lots of sketches.  These preliminary drawings offer a unique insight into the processes Sheila used when it came to designing patterns. 

Sheila’s artistic talent meant she could adapt her style to meet the different tastes of the market. Her designs are not necessarily revolutionary but instead show the styles popular with the general public for decorating their homes.

Sheila’s early designs show the radical shift towards using purely geometrical shapes for pattern. Pioneered by the leading designer of the time, Lucienne Day, this style was first showcased at the Festival of Britain in 1951. 

Sheila clearly admired Day’s work and it is no coincidence that she went on to sell her designs to many of the same companies as Day.

In the 1950s not everyone was ready to buy the revolutionary modernist designs of the day. It took time this style to become popular with the general public and it was designers like Sheila who helped to do this.  

In the 1960s Sheila was still creating 1950s style abstract patterns. It is her designs which are more likely to have ended up in the everyday home.

Floral designs were hugely popular in everyday fashions of the late 1950s to early 1960s. It might have been this market which Sheila was aiming for with patterns such as this. 

Letters from the family archive show Sheila successfully sold her designs to the major high street retailer of clothing Marks and Spencer. Her designs might have ended up on dresses or skirts.

Other floral designs, show Bownas’ skills at combining traditional pattern design ideas with a contemporary feel, through the use of bright, bold colours. 

The influence of these commissions can be seen in many of Sheila’s designs and particularly those from the 1960s. She clearly applied her skills of botanical drawing to pattern design. 

Using her skills to created bolder stylized version flowers which would work as pattern on textiles.

The early 1970s seems to have a particularly prolific period of design for Sheila Bownas. This productivity coincides with the rising popularity of DIY. As people started to redecorate their homes themselves the demand for wallpapers grew rapidly and the brighter and bolder the designs the better.

During this period Sheila designed a series of energetic patterns painted straight onto grey sugar paper. 

Her simple use of bold shapes painted in tones of black and white really show her skills and knowledge of pattern repeat.

At some point in the 1970s Sheila stopped designing patterns to sell. But her love of art did not end and she continued to paint and draw right up until her death in 2007 at the age of 82.