Who is Doris Blair?

Doris Violet Blair, later Doris Bourguignon (born 1915) was a British 20th century performer who worked in a range of media. She is possibly best known for her depictions of vivaciousness in Northern Ireland during World War II.

Blair was born in Belfast and studied at the Belfast College of Art and at the Royal College of Art. During World War II she worked for the Ministry of Information in the Postal Censorship department. Blair as well as painted scenes of bomb damage in Belfast and portraits of some of the British and American troops stationed there. Furthermore, she submitted a proposal to the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to baby book the endeavors of women who had entered the industrial workforce for the war effort. The WAAC Committee didn’t act upon that proposal but far ahead in the achievement did purchase a number of watercolours from Blair depicting women officers.

After the war, Blair had a solo exhibition of her act out in 1948 at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery. Leaving Belfast she studied in New York below the architect Wallace Harrison and after that in Paris behind Fernand Léger and André Lhote. By 1975, Blair was successful in Belgium and, working in a largely abstract style, she had a solo sham in Brussels. During the 1990s, Blair granted in London and continued to paint, mostly energetic in acrylics. In 1982 the Ulster Museum acquired a growth of her watercolours from World War II.