My mother Betty Stadden passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th April 2020 at the age of 90. She had been increasingly ill with dementia for the last four years.
It is difficult to imagine how my father Charles Stadden would ever have been able to develop his artistic skills without the help and support of my mother. They were married in 1952. She was a professional dressmaker, having learnt her trade at Liberties in London, and those skills working from home would bolster the family finances all the way through to the mid 1970s, a time when the popularity of Chas C Stadden Studios 85mm figures made my fathers income much more stable. But she was also an talented artist in her own right, able to produce embroidery, knitwear and accomplished watercolours too. Her model soldier painting skills were second to none, she must have painted thousands over the years, (as well as teaching other painters how to do it the Stadden way), allowing Dad to concentrate on his sculpting and oil and watercolour painting.
Mum and Dad were the perfect team, their 50 years of happy marriage (Dad passed away in 2002) produced three children and a huge legacy of artwork.
If you possess one of the Chas C Stadden Studios 85mm painted figures, take a look at the signature on the base at the back, you may just have one signed B A Stadden.
