PRIVATE ART/POTTERY COLLECTION + ESTATE AUCTION
Thursday, 3 - Monday, 7 September 2026

Betty Beadle née Cutcher (1924 - 2002) coffee pot w applied grape & sun motifs

Lot Details

owl monogram from stylised B.C initals impressed to side. h. 200mm Betty Beadle (1924–2002) studied painting, drawing, ceramics and design at Newcastle (NSW, Australia) Art School. In 1961 she became a founding member of the Low Show Group — a pioneering group of female artists serious about forging professional art careers. In 1988, Beadle was a propelling influence, and founding member of what is now Medal Art New Zealand (MANZ). Through this group, Beadle and Marian [Fountain] introduced artist friends from various disciplines to the delights of the medal and held workshops to demonstrate the making processes. Amongst her initiatives and achievements, Beadle remained a productive artist who skillfully traversed mediums. Holding a life-long interest in the technicalities of the processes used to create artworks, her works are a celebration of materials having their own inherent qualities. Compelled to produce across mediums Betty Beadle left dynamic examples of low relief medals, highly stylised pottery (such as this pot), and a variety of original prints boasting compact design elements. Beadle’s personal directive was to make works that demonstrated her own particular sensibilities, knowledge, imagination and response to materials to make things which are a direct product of [her] hands, instincts, mind and environment. While Beadle’s use of mediums is extensive — her subject matter is consistent throughout them — her work largely depicts domestic joy and harmony and her love of nature and life. She employs a revolving cast of birds, insects, plants and figures — harmoniously sharing the composition. Beadle wrote that insects belong to the world of instinct and unthinking response which we too share, and obey more often than we would care to admit. Beadle’s works are whimsical and elegant portrayals of this world. While often reductively credited as the wife of Paul Beadle, Betty Beadle is better remembered as an accomplished visual artist, advocate for the arts, and an essential founding member of MANZ, which continues showcasing New Zealand art internationally, decades after its inception.