Zelma Muriel Blakely (26 November 1921 - 6 September 1978) was a British painter, printmaker and engraver who illustrated a number of books.

Biography

Blakely was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

in London to James Blakely, a British diplomat, and Imeon Maria Matear, who had married in 1920. Blakely attended schools in both the United States and England before studying at

Kingston School of Art The Kingston School of Art (KSA) is an art school in Kingston upon Thames, part of Kingston University London. It was first established in 1899 as the Kingston School of Science and Art. In 1930 it was established as a separate school and has be ...

from 1939 to 1942 and then at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

from 1945 for three years. At the Slade she was taught by both

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of coun ...

and

Randolph Schwabe Randolph Schwabe (9 May 1885 – 19 September 1948) was a British draughtsman, painter and etcher who was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College London from 1930 until his death. He served as a war artist in both World Wars, crea ...

and won a notable prize, the Wilson Steer Gold Medal. After the Slade, Blakely taught art at

Heatherley's School of Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...

while establishing her career as a printmaker and book illustrator for which her preferred technique was

wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and p ...

. She was elected an associate member of the

Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), known until 1991 as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, is a leading art institution based in London, England. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as it was originally styled, was ...

in 1955 and a full member in 1966. For many years Blakely lived at Rose Cottage at Pin Mill in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

and she was a member of, and regular exhibitor with, the Ipswich Art Club from 1974. Blakely was married twice, first in 1948 to the artist Keith MacKenzie (1924-1983), with who she had three sons, and after their divorce she remarried in 1977.

Books illustrated

* ''El Zarco the Bandit'' by

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio (; 13 November 1834 – 13 February 1893) was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician. He wrote ''Clemencia'' (1869), which is often considered to be the first modern Mexican novel. ...

, (

Folio Society The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021. It produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fict ...

, 1957) * ''English Fare and French Wines'' by André Simon (Neame, 1958) * ''The Bedside Book of Nature'', (

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

, 1959) * ''Geordie's Mermaid'' by S. Bishop (

Methuen Publishing Methuen Publishing Ltd is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially Methuen mainly published non-fiction academic works, eventually diversifying to ...

, 1961) *''Treasure Trove (Exploring Poetry)'' edited by E. W. Parker (Longmans, 1961) * ''The Book of the Countryside'' by A. Phillips and other illustrators (BBC, 1963) * ''With Angus in the Forest'' by M M Reid (

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

, 1963) * ''Under the Sun'' by J. Varney (Constable, 1964) * ''Kippers to Caviar'' by H. Burke (Evans, 1965) * ''

The Charterhouse of Parma ''The Charterhouse of Parma'' (french: La Chartreuse de Parme, links=no) is a novel by Stendhal published in 1839. Telling the story of an Italian nobleman in the Napoleonic era and later, it was admired by Honoré de Balzac, Balzac, Leo Tolstoy, ...

'' by

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...

(Folio Society, 1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakely, Zelma 1921 births 1978 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of Kingston University Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British expatriates in the United States English illustrators English women painters Artists from Kensington