Sadly one of our members has recently died her biography can be viewed here.
Born Sheila Fairman,18 August 1924. One of three children, together with older sister Brenda (now deceased) and younger brother Peter.
In childhood, when she was not immersed in her books on Greek and Roman mythology, or searching for newts in the countryside pools around the family home in Benfleet, she was already discovering her talent as an artist, which would become her lifelong passion.
She became a student at Southend Art School, but evacuation to Blackpool as a teenager during the war temporarily put paid to her ambitions.
After the war she returned to Southend and in 1951 married Bernard Fairman. In 1954 their son, Richard, was born.
Her interests as an artist were many and various. From scraper boards of favourite dogs' heads, she moved on to oil paintings of sea scenes - the barges of Leigh-on-Sea were to become a favourite - portraits, flower paintings, and many examples of still life.
Very quickly she established herself at a national level. For several years she exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, subjects including her highly-regarded small paintings of shells and feathers.
Some of her greatest successes came with miniatures. She became a leading member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters and in 1989 won the Society's Gold Bowl Memorial Award.
Other awards included a Hunting Group Art Prize in 1982 and an award at the "Not the Royal Academy" exhibition held each year at the Llewelyn Alexander Gallery opposite the Old Vic Theatre.
She also exhibited for many years with other major societies, including the Society of Women Artists, the Society of Botanical Artists and the Hilliard Society.
Wedgwood created a limited edition of 12 china plates, called 'Country Garden Flowers', featuring her flower paintings.
Three of her paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Beecroft Art Gallery in Southend and are now part of the nation's art collection, pictured on the BBC's 'Your Paintings' website.
Even as her eyesight was failing in the past few years, she continued to do high-quality work - delighting the Veryan Gallery in Cornwall, where she had exhibited for so many years, with the continued supply of new paintings. In the last two days before she died, she had just taken up painting again after the dark winter months, and a last watercolour was on her easel.
