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

Biography

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]