My friend and school mate Elizabeth Butler died in October 2020 (aged 69) after a long period suffering from cancer. Having been the star artist of our year at school, she went on to study at the Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing, and at the Royal College of Art. She then won a scholarship to continue post graduate training at the Karlsruhe Art Academy in Germany, where she formed strong connections, completing a commission to paint a 60sq m fresco in the barracks at Bruchsal in 1991. 

Elizabeth’s life was dogged by illness, compounded by lead poisoning, caused by a mix up between lead white and zinc white paint, which she inhaled while working in Germany.  However, she got through tough detoxification and settled in the West Sussex village of Amberley. With this as her base, she continued to visit Germany and made several journeys to Australia, where combined with her deep interest in physical geography, she found the inspiration for much of her subsequent work, and where she showed in a joint exhibition in Perth with her friend, the woodworker artist Albert Könerman, 

As the critic Michael Huebl wrote  “She created sensitively mixed paintings that could be described as color soundscapes: delicately luminous areas interspersed with delicate dots, sometimes reminiscent of multilayered shimmering cuts through precious stones, sometimes of floating cloud formations.” 

For many years Elizabeth combined her studio painting with design work, mural painting for domestic interiors and some astonishing fabric painting for upholstery.  Our days working side by side in the art room at school continued later with some scenic and mural painting for film and theatre work that I was designing. 

Written by: Miranda Melville (DH 1969) 

Photograph caption 

Elizabeth (centre) in the production of Twelfth Night in 1968