Mary Cozens-Walker (married name Mary Green, 11 August 1938 – 4 July 2020) was an English textile artist and painter best known for her three-dimensional works pertaining to her own domestic life. She exhibited in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States. She has appeared as a model in about 600 paintings. Her own work is in national collections and paintings of her are also in national collections.
In the 1960s and 1970s Cozens-Walker continued to paint, but found it more and more constrictive. She had begun to experiment with stitching in America, and embroidery via individual projects, and this led to her seeking professional advice from the Royal School of Needlework. Cozens-Walker returned to education in 1981 to complete a postgraduate Diploma in Embroidery and Textiles at Goldsmiths.[2]
Cozens-Walker made her name as an artist combining paint, textiles and papier-mâché, and led to solo exhibitions in the UK, Japan and North America.[1]
Cozens-Walker was also the life-long muse to Green, with their relationship portrayed in maybe 600 of his pictures from the 1960s to her death in 2020.[3] They appeared together in programmes such as The South Bank Show[4] with Melvyn Bragg.[5] Some of the paintings of her are in national collections.[6]