By the age of six, Brenda Chamberlain had already decided to be an artist and writer and nothing was to dissuade her from this ambition.  Although she admits a stronger attraction to painting, in her lifetime she published three novels, a book of poetry, a book of poems and drawings and an account of the making of the Caseg Broadsheets, as well as having a large number of poems and articles published in magazines.

 

Born and educated in Bangor, Brenda, after leaving school spent six months in Copenhagen where the paintings of Gauguin influenced her early works.  Between 1931-36 she attended the Royal Academy Schools in London, after which she moved to Llanllechid with John Petts where they set up the Caseg Press in 1937.  John had studied typesetting and he taught Brenda to engrave woodblocks.  Together they produced Christmas, wedding and greetings cards. They also collaborated with Alun Lewis to produce a series of hand printed ‘broadsheets’ of poems and engravings.