Margaret Bodley Edwards, Artist and Educator (Retired)

I interviewed Margaret in 2019, and was immediately taken with her warmth, intelligence, huge heart, massive creativity, and kindness. She is remarkable! She seems to know absolutely everyone in Rothbury and Coquetdale, and has taught art to a huge percentage of us!
The following is the article that was printed in the Northumberland Gazette in 2019.

An artist, art historian, and teacher, Margaret Bodley Edwards is proud that she can trace her ancestry back to Sir Thomas Bodley (of Oxford's Bodleian Library) and the architect George Frederick Bodley.

Margaret was born in the West Midlands, the fifth child of five. As her mother was the eighth of 8 and her father the fifteenth of 15, this seems quite remarkable, if not magical! She was the only one in the family who became an artist, however, and her journey to this career is very interesting indeed.

One of Margaret's paintings.

After graduating, Margaret taught in a primary school in Staffordshire. But art - creating and making - was always her passion, 'I've never not done art; I was always creating'.

She was seconded to the Local Authority as an Art Advisor to schools and created schemes of work for use in museums and art galleries. She opened up a whole world of resources which was new to teachers at the time. 'I was so happy to get kids from all backgrounds into art galleries and interested in art and craft'.

She came to Northumberland in 1988, as Acting Headteacher in an Alnwick first school. But in 1993 Margaret made the leap to become a full-time self-supporting artist and maker.

She began running classes for children while she was at The Coquetdale Arts Centre. Margaret opened Deugar Red Art Studio in Townfoot, Rothbury, in 2005.

In 2015 the studio moved to Woodlands, Rothbury, where Margaret teaches children on Sunday afternoons, Mondays, and Fridays after school.

She also does adult classes and individual tuition.

This dolls' house has grown even larger, and is even more elaborate and interesting. This photo is from 2020, when the house almost hit the ceiling!

Margaret hasn't neglected art history. She works in Northumberland schools for Magic Lantern where teachers can request specialist cross curricula art-based lessons of their choosing.

I asked Margaret what she was most proud of. “The banners at Dr Thomlinson's Middle School which were done with children. Also, paintings done in collaboration with the Laing Art Gallery with disadvantaged young people in Newcastle. More recently, pieces which were created with refugees and asylum seekers for Westgate Road Baptist Church”.

Margaret is a generous, talented, and remarkable woman who cares deeply about giving artistic opportunities to all.

“I have worked with groups who have Alzheimer's and with people with learning difficulties. Community collaborative work is so rewarding because of seeing the benefits that others accrue, and their pride when it is completed”.

Buddy and Eli