Ann Thetis Blacker (13 December 1927 – 18 December 2006) was an English painter and singer. She was noted for her richly coloured pictures, especially using the

batik Batik is an Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth. This technique originated from the island of Java, Indonesia. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a ''ca ...

wax-resist fabric dyeing process. Blacker was born in

Holmbury St Mary Holmbury St Mary is a village in Surrey, England centered on shallow upper slopes of the Greensand Ridge. Its developed area is a clustered town southwest of Dorking and southeast of Guildford. Most of the village is in the borough of Guildfor ...

, Surrey, England. She was the daughter of Carlos Paton Blacker, a psychiatrist, and granddaughter of Carlos Blacker, a friend of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. Blacker intended to be a singer and studied with the German mezzo-soprano singer

Elena Gerhardt Elena Gerhardt (11 November 1883 – 11 January 1961) was a German mezzo-soprano singer associated with the singing of German classical lieder, of which she was considered one of the great interpreters. She left Germany for good to live in London ...

in London. She appeared in the chorus at

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...

opera in the 1950s and sang the role of "Mother Goose" in ''

The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings ''A Rake's Progres ...

'' by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

. When her singing career was cut short by vocal issues in the mid-1950s, Blacker turned her focus to painting. She studied at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

in London and was taught by the wife of the artist

Leonard Campbell Taylor Leonard Campbell Taylor (12 December 1874 – 1 July 1969) was a British painter, mainly of portraits and Interior portrait, interiors in a traditional style. Among his patrons was the founding family of Courtaulds and the Courtauld Institute o ...

, Brenda Moore. In 1970, Blacker became a Churchill Fellow and visited India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. She worked at the Batik Research Institute in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

, Indonesia. She went on to visit Bali and Peru, influencing her style of brightly coloured symbolic pictures using

dyed fabric. A number of cathedrals and churches in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and the United States commissioned her work including a series of five major pieces based on mythical themes: ''Apocalypse'' (at

St Andrew's House St. Andrew's House (SAH), on the southern flank of Calton Hill in central Edinburgh, is the headquarters building of the Scottish Government. The building stands on the site of the former Calton Gaol. Today, the turreted Governor's House is a ...

), ''Arbor Cosmica'', ''A Bestiary of Mythical Creatures'', ''The Creation'' (at

Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...

), and ''Search for the Simurgh''. WinchesterBatikFestivalBanners

Blacker received commissions for artworks at: *

St George's Chapel, Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

(1997), with an exhibition there in 2000; *

St Albans Abbey St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Norman times. It ceased to be ...

; * Three works in Grey College Chapel at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

(''The Creation of Darkness and Light'', ''Imago Aquarium'', and ''Imago Lucis''); * A

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

in the dining hall of Grey College, Durham (2000); * Banners of

St Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...

and St Oswald at

Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

(2001). Blacker's work was exhibited at Glyndebourne in 2005. Her dealer was Henry Dyson and she died in

Bramley, Surrey Bramley is a village and civil parish about three miles (5 km) south of Guildford in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, south east England. Most of the parish lies in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Within its bounda ...

in 2006.

References

1927 births 2006 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists 20th-century English women singers 20th-century English singers Alumni of the University of the Arts London Batik English women painters People from the Borough of Guildford {{England-painter-stub