Sandra Blow RA

Born in London in 1925, Sandra’s innovative approach to painting during the 1950’s insured her position as one of the leaders of the post-war British abstract art movement. Sandra studied at St Martin’s School of Art in London (1941-6) and then the Royal Academy Schools (1946-7) before travelling extensively in France and Spain. Finally settling in Italy to study Renaissance art and architecture she became influenced by Alberto Burri who introduced Sandra to the potentials of collage and the tensions created between textures. His work incorporated unconventional materials such as sacking, plaster, tar and ash all of which later appeared in Blow’s work.

Gradually she developed her own form of abstract expressionism focusing on space, geometry, light, movement, matter and scale rejecting conventional representation of subject matter which she found liberating. However, landscape and forms in nature have always been important in Sandra’s work and she describes an interest in the geometry of nature:

“I marvel at the beauty and construction of leaves and flowers outside the studio. I love London skies, because they are frames and one sees them almost like painting. I’m often amazed at the juxtapositions of trees, parts of buildings and the sky, and constantly changing, subtle colours. I also love great sweeps of moorlands, where you have wonderful undulating lines.”

Between 1961-1975 Sandra Blow taught at the Royal College of Art and was later elected a Royal Academician. She has work in numerous collections including the Tate Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She moved to St Ives in 1994 and sadly passed away in August 2006.