Sheila Bownas: A Designer’s Life

At her local Girls’ High School, in Skipton, she flourished as an artist and from there was encouraged to go to Skipton Art College. Her love and understanding of pattern was obvious even at this stage of her life.

In 1946 Sheila was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious Slade School of Art, in London. Here she continued to thrive as an artist. She was taught a range of skills from life drawing to landscape painting and won various prizes for her work. 

After graduating Sheila’s ability in pattern design was recognised by the Council of Industrial Design - an organisation set up in 1944 by the British Government, to improve design practices and standards. The Council is still going to day but is now known as the Design Council.

Sheila’s work was recommended to manufacturers across Britain and Europe. This led to her designing patterns for Demide Ltd, a vinyl floor company in Britain and PW Bruck-Messel, a textile company in Germany.

But life as a designer was hard for a young female artist in the 1950s and 1960s. After graduation Sheila spent 12 years living between London and her family home in Linton, trying to make a career for herself. 

Sheila’s best friend Betsy helped out by providing somewhere to stay. The friends had met as students at the Slade.

For a time in the late 1950s Sheila lived in a small cottage in the grounds of Betsy’s parents’ home, in Kingston upon Thames. From there she would travel in to London to show her work to prospective buyers. 

A letter dated 1959 reveals the difficulties Sheila faced in finding a more permanent job:


“With reference to your desire to obtain a position in our studio, the director feels that should an appointment be made at all, a male designer would be preferable.” 

This didn’t deter Sheila’s passion for design. In 1962 she returned to Linton in the Yorkshire Dales and it is here that she lived for the rest of her life painting and successfully selling her designs from a small make-shift studio next to her cottage.

Letters confirm that Sheila sold her designs to well-known brands, but you will not find her name on any of the finished products sold by the companies she worked for.

Female designers, like Sheila, dominated the commercial textile pattern industry of this period. These talented artists designed the popular, everyday patterns which ended up in people’s homes, decorating their furniture or on their walls. Yet their names are often not known.

In design history Sheila's name might have been lost if it was not for the survival of this collection of designs. The designs are works which were not sold to any manufacturers but were all carefully kept, by Sheila Bownas, at her home in Linton, in the Yorkshire Dales.

In the collection were nearly 200 hand painted designs. Many of them are signed 'S. Bownas' and have their own unique design number. Using the designs as a starting point Chelsea Cefai set about researching Sheila Bownas to find out more about her life and work. 

With help from Sheila’s family who provided family photographs, letters and documents this important story has now been pieced together and brought to life. Sheila Bownas is no longer an unknown designer.  

Chelsea’s Cefai’s commitment to shining a light on the life and works of Sheila Bownas has ensured the collection has stayed together and now has a permanent home in a public museum collection.