Deirdre Borlase

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Deirdre Borlase
Born1925
Dulwich, London
Died2018 (aged 92–93)
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Known forPainting
SpouseFrederick Brill

Deirdre Borlase (1925–2018) was a British painter and printmaker.

Biography[edit]

Borlase was born at Dulwich in London and grew up Margate, where her father was a plumber.[1] She studied at the Bromley School of Art between 1940 and 1944 and then at the Royal College of Art in London for a further two years.[2] After graduating she taught at the Harrow School of Art for two years and then at the Kingston School of Art until 1950.[3] After a career break, Borlase returned to art in 1967, creating landscapes of Venice and, later, of Carperby in north Yorkshire where the family had a cottage from 1981.[3][1] She was commissioned for six paintings by St Luke's Hospital in Bradford.[3] As well as painting Borlase took up print making after taking a course at Morley College in 1977 and in the 1990s began experimenting with computer graphics and also decorating furniture.[3] Borlase was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London and in group shows. She had a solo show at the David Thompson Gallery in 1979 and exhibited on a regular basis at the Broughton House Gallery in Cambridge from 1989.[3] Later she regularly showed new work with the Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk.[1]

While a student at the Royal College of Art, Borlase met, and later married, the artist Frederick Brill, (1920–1984), who became the principal of the Chelsea Art School.[2] The couple's work was subject of a two person exhibition in 1986 and featured in the 1993 exhibition Relative Values at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling.[3] Borlase's paintings featured in the exhibition The Secret to a Good Life which opened at the Royal Academy in September 2018, some months after she died.[4][5] The exhibition was curated by one of her three children, the artist Bob and Roberta Smith.[4][5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Bob and Roberta Smith (30 July 2018). "Deirdre Borlase obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-106-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e f David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
  4. ^ a b "The Secret to a Good Life". Royal Academy. 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  5. ^ a b Louisa Buck (6 September 2018). "Bob and Roberts Smith's family values and pencil power at the Royal Academy of Arts". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 7 June 2020.