email:  marie@marieblake.com

website:  https://www.marieblake.com/

Born in 1938, I was raised in Richmond, Surrey and Axminster, Devon. After qualifying at Kingston Art School and Central College London University, I taught art at Westover School in Bridgewater then in the London borough of Hillingdon, where I was Head of the art department of Swakeleys School, and finally at Honiton Community College in East Devon.

For a further 15 years I set up and ran painting courses from my home in Lyme Regis, while writing for Leisure Painter magazine and exhibiting with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the New English Art Club, and for ten years as a member of the Society of Women Artists.

I am married to Charles Smith, we have two sons and a daughter.

My years of teaching have taught me to be versatile across all painting, drawing and printmaking media.

I have been particularly engaged over the past decade with exploring a bereavement in my infancy. The idea grew out of a dream, and is still evolving through paintings into a set of sixteen hand made screenprints. The releasing of subconscious memories has been a release and a joyous experience.