Blakeslee, Sarah, 1912-2005

Sarah Blakeslee (1912-2005) was an American painter known for her landscapes, still lifes, and portraits and was the wife of the painter, Francis Speight.

Blakeslee was born January 13, 1912 in Evanston, Illinois to Walter Conklin and Carolyn Van Akin Blakeslee. She moved often while growing up, living in Evanston, Washington, D.C., Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Muskegon, Michigan. In 1924, Blakeslee began studying art in Muskegon and Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago. When her family returned moved to Washington, D.C. the second time, she studied art at the Corcoran School of Art (1929-1931) before enrolling in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' (PAFA) Country School in Chester Springs(1931-1933). In 1933 Blakeslee won her first Cresson European Traveling Scholarship and followed this by enrolling in the PAFA's Philadelphia (1933-1934) location. There she won her second Cresson Scholarship and in 1935, she had her first solo exhibition at Calvert Studio in Annapolis, Maryland.

Around 1935, Blakeslee met her and began spending time with her instructor at the PAFA, the painter, Francis Speight. From 1935-1936, Blakeslee studied sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art and continued seeing Speight. On November 7, 1936, Blakeslee married Speight. In 1937 the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned Blakeslee to paint a mural for a post office in Strasburg, Virginia. In 1939, Blakeslee showed pieces at the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco and in New York at the World's Fair. In 1940 her son, Thomas Blakeslee Speigh, was born, and in 1943, her daughter, Elizabeth Sharrock Speight, was born. In 1949, she showed work with her husband at the North Carolina State Art Gallery in Raleigh, N.C. and in 1952, Blakeslee began teaching at the Lankenau School in Philadelphia.

In 1961, Speight was offered presented with an offer to be an artist in residence at East Carolina College in Greenville, North Carolina, so the family moved to Greenville, where Blakeslee would spend much of the reste of her life. In 1963, a solo exhibition of Blakeslee's works were held at the Greenville Museum of Art, the first of many solo exhibitions throughout North Carolina, including at Rocky Mount, Kinston, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines, Warren County, and Tarboro. In 1989, her husband died in Greenville.

In the following years, she became more prolific as an artist, and her reputation grew, both locally and nationwide. In 1993, Blakeslee accepted a residency at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1994, she was awarded the North Carolina Award in Fine Arts. In June of 1998, she moved back to a retirement home Philadelphia to be nearer her daughter. Throughout her life Blakeslee taught classes at local art centers. She passed away in 2005.