Blaine studied at the Richmond Professional Institute (now Richmond School of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University) from 1939 to 1942, when she went to New York and began two years of study with Hans Hofmann. She also studied with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, in 1945, and at the New School for Social Research, 1952-53. Initially working in a wholly abstractionist mode--Blaine was in 1944, the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group, and became a member of the Jane Street Group--she turned to a figurative style in the early 1950s.
Blaine's high-colored landscapes, interiors, and especially flower still lifes are widely exhibited. Her first solo exhibition occured in 1945; others have been held at the Virginia Museum, Richmond, and at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, both in 1973, and a retrospective exhibition organized by the Gallery Asociation of New York State toured the State, 1974-75. Her awards include a fellowships from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1943 and 1946; a Hallmark International Award, 1960; a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1974; a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1975; and from the Academy, Carlsen and Altman prizes in 1982 and 1986, respectively. Blaine resides in New York, and summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She is represented by the Fischbach Gallery, New York.
