Blow, Sandra
Sandra Blow was born in London in 1925. At the age of 15, she left school and in 1940, entered St Martin's School of Art, London. After the Second World War, Blow studied at the Royal Academy Schools and in 1947 moved to Italy. Returning to London in 1950, Blow was to be one of the artists at the fore front of the abstract art movement within Britain.
'Painting (57)' was made during the year Blow first lived in St. Ives. Through her friendship with other artists such as Roger Hilton, who were associated with Cornwall, Blow rented a cottage for a year at Tregerthen in 1957. Working in a barn, Blow created paintings that incorporated the materials immediate to her surroundings, seeking to capture the movement and changing phenomena of the Cornish landscape.
Blow lived in London for the following 24 years, continuing to paint and also teach at the Royal College of Art. She returned to live in St Ives during the mid-1990s. Up until her death in 2006, Blow continued to exhibit both locally in Cornwall, at Tate St Ives and in London, at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Felice McDowell
Painting (57)
1957