Sandra BLOW
Born in London, Blow studied at St Martins School of Art and then the RA Schools, finishing up her student days at the Academie della Belle Arte, Rome in 1948. She taught at the Royal College of Art, London. After some further travelling she settled in London before arriving in West Cornwall, to stay a year in a cottage at Tregerthen to be near Patrick HERON and his wife Delia. Other close friends were Roger and Rose HILTON. Latterly she became a member of the Hypatia Trust and made a significant donation to the establishment of the WCAA in Penzance.
Over the remaining years she lived and worked both in London and in West Cornwall, associating herself with several societies in both places. In the 1990s she acquired one of the Porthmeor Studios, and from that studio came her first painting for the Tate Gallery St Ives (Porthmeor Beach exhibition). She joined the Penwith Society in 1958, and was elected an associate of the RA in 1971 (RA 1978).
media
Abstract painter, teacher
works and access
Likenesses: photo with Rose Phipps & Roger Hilton [in] in Bird (2008) St Ives Artists: Place & Time;
Tate (4 works);
exhibitions
Porthmeor Beach Exhibition, Tate St Ives
WCAA Founding Art Auction (Donor) Queens Hotel, Penzance, April 2004
2014: 'Sandra Blow', The Exchange 26 July-4 Oct
2017: 'Sandra Blow - Eleven Works', The Fine Art Society, London (9-30 Jan)
2024: Truro School Art Collection, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro (30 Jan-18 May)
memberships
RA
Hon FRCA
NSA 1995 list
Penwith Society
Hypatia Trust
references
Personal bibliography: Bird (2005) Sandra Blow (100 colour and 38 b&w illus)
Bird (2008) St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place & Time;
Brittain, Sarah and Cook, Simon (2001) Behind the Canvas, 40 Artists working in West Cornwall;
Cross (2002) Catching the Wave, Contemporary Art & Artists in Cornwall (pp57-61, photos & illus);
Great Atlantic Publications & Clark Art Ltd (2008) the golden age of cornish art
Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn: Diary of a Gallery;
Hoyle, H (Dec 2010 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) Review of BBC4 documentary 'Art of Cornwall'
Hoyle, H (Oct 2011 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Louise Connell at Falmouth Art Gallery'
Hoyle, H (June 2003 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Open Studios Cornwall 2013 - Margaret Deans and Julia Cooper'
Hoyle, H (Feb 2014 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Morag Ballard at Lemon Street Gallery'
Hoyle, H (Aug 2014 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Sandra Blow - in Search of Balance'
RA (1977) British Painting 1952-77
Tate (1985) St Ives 1939-64 Twenty Five Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery (biog info p118 [photo c 1958])
W H Lane Catalogue (2004) WCAA Charity Auction
Whybrow (1996) Another View, Art in St Ives (photo illustration)
Whybrow (2013) St Ives: The Story of Porthmeor Studios;