BICHARA, Jean

1932 - 2021

As Beryl Jean Gray she was born at the Salvation Army Mothers' Hospital in Hackney in 1932, her mother Rita was a 17-year-old unmarried domestic servant, and the Salvation Army arranged for Jean to be fostered and then adopted. She grew up in London and Wales during the Second World War and was a shy child who was always interested in painting and dreamed of being an artist. Her father died when she was 24 when she enrolled in an art school in Colchester followed by studies at Goldsmiths College in London. After graduation, Jean taught art in some secondary schools and later went on the design carpets. Jean was adventurous and travelled widely around Europe and she met Pierre Bichara in Venice and they married in Nigeria in 1964, and settled in London, where sons Simon and Tim were born in 1968 and 1973. In 1973 they took a weekend holiday at The Swan in Southwold and liking the area they purchased a small cottage in Wangford purchasing the house next door in 1978. In 1992 they left London for good, and made Wangford their home and gave up teaching to raise the children and worked in a studio in their garden. Bichara was a member of Waveney Watercolourists. Beryl Jean Bichara died at Wangford, Suffolk on 11 March 2021.

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Works by This Artist