Beulah Elizabeth Hazelrigg Brown (November 24, 1892 – March 26, 1987) was a Hoosier painter, educator, and textile designer who is best known for her bold, colorful, abstract patterns for fabrics, as well as figure, genre, landscapes, and floral still-life paintings in watercolor, her preferred media.
She was married to Francis Focer Brown, an American Impressionist painter and a professor and director of Ball State University's Fine Art Department from 1925 to 1957 and also a former student of Forsyth.
In addition to her instruction with Forsyth, her other art instructors included Otto Stark, Clifton Wheeler, and Harold Haven Brown.
[4][5] Beulah Hazelrigg married Frances Focer Brown, a fellow student at Herron, on January 4, 1916, about three months after they met.
Brown (1891–1971), a native of New Jersey, grew up in Muncie, Indiana, and studied painting with Hoosier Group painter J. Ottis Adams before enrolling at Herron, where Brown and Hazelrigg both studied under William Forsyth, also a noted Hoosier Group painter and American impressionist artist.
Because her husband's poor eyesight, Beulah Brown would prepare his palette, arranging the colors in a specific order.
[12] Brown's bold, colorful, abstract patterns, frequently drawing upon her flower garden for ideas, were used in various textiles and fabric designs.
Brown did not think there were similarities, pointing out that she had formal art training while Moses was a self-taught, American folk artist.
[13] Brown's distinctive style later led to her inclusion in the "Group of Twelve," contemporary Indiana women artists whose works blend physical, intellectual, and emotional intensity.
In addition to Brown, this group of artists include, among others, Betsy Stirratt, Charlene Marsh, Karen Thompson, and Bonnie Sklarski.
Highlights of this group's art were later illustrated in Matter, Mind, Spirit: 12 Contemporary Indiana Women Artists, a catalog of an exhibit curated and assembled by Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Herron School of Art and Design professor Jean Robertson.