Oil on canvas, circa 1954, signed at lower right, presented in a later gilt frame.

Stretcher size 20 x 24 in.; Frame dimensions 27 1/4 x 31 1/2 in.

Private Collection, Pennslyvania

Born in Evanston, IL, Blakeslee began her art studies at the age of 13 at the Chicago Art Institute. Her family moved to Washington, D.C., where she enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art and Miss Catherine Critcher's School of Art. She took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts during the first-half of the 1930s and was awarded the Academy's prestigious Cresson Scholarship twice. During her studies at the Academy, she met and married her instructor, painter Francis Speight.

In 1961, her husband accepted became artist-in-residence at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. This painting, a particularly fine example of her mature style, sparkles with life and light. Each figure, and the dog, appear to be caught mid-movement, enjoying a day along the water in eastern NC.

Blakeslee's artwork has been exhibited by the Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery; National Academy of Design; North Carolina Museum; Pennsylvania Academy; and the 1939 Worlds Fair in San Francisco, California. Her work is held in numerous permanent collections including the Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC; National Academy of Design, New York, NY; and The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC.

Minor draw to canvas in lower right corner.

$5,000 - 10,000