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Nell Blaine

was born in Richmond, Virginia, 1922..."Nellie's life so far is already the stuff for three novels," a remark written in 1959. Her life has continued to be rich and varied, yet always productively dedicated to painting since an early age. At sixteen she enrolled at the Richmond School of Art (now VCU) and three years later she came to New York to study with Hans Hofmann. She developed rapidly, as a student drawing in the collection of Metropolitan Museum attests, and evolved as a purist abstractionist. At twenty-two she joined the American Abstract Artists group, and in 1945 held her first solo sow at the pioneering Jane Street Gallery. She continued to exhibit regularly since 1944 both in the U.S and abroad. In 1950 her first trip to France and Italy furthered her figurative leanings. Two solos at Tibor de Nagy were followed in 1955 by a twenty-three-year association with the Poindexter Gallery.
By 1956 she had firmly integrated her abstract structure into a free vision of nature, based on an intuitive, spontaneous use of color. Painting in Mexico and Greece in 1957 and 1959 brought more "air" and brightness to her palette. She worked at Yaddo and MacDowell and in the mid-sixties again worked abroad in England and in St. Lucia, and during summers she often painted at Gloucester, Mass. Important shows included "Five American Painters" at Knoedler's, a group of 67 Blaines at the Virginia Museum in 1973, and a retrospective of works from 1955-1973, which traveled through New York State during 1974-1975, sponsored by CAPS and GANYS.

Recognition has included numerous grants, notably a Guggenheim in 1974, and a National En-dowment Grant in 1975. In ARTS, June 1976, Martica Sawin wrote of her last Poindexter show: "She is one of the most exciting and masterful colorists that American painting has seen." The current exhibition features painting completed in the Tirol, Austria, Gloucester, Mass., and New York City and his her thirty-sixth solo exhibition.