Blankenship, Roy

Roy was born in Philadelphia, November 26, 1943, grew up and was raised by his mother Alberta Insley Blankenship.

By the summer of 1960 while working at the Seaward Inn, Rockport, MA Roy accepted an invitation from Dr. Speck’s old friend and colleague Ernest Dodge, Director of the Peabody Museum.

Upon graduating from Brandywine High School, Wilmington, DE, in 1962 Roy enlisted in the US Navy becoming a Radioman and Cameraman. From 1965 through August 1966 Roy served.

After being honorably discharged in August 1966, Roy spent the autumn in New England plein air painting in Vermont and New Hampshire and on Cape Ann with artists Emile Gruppe, Otis Pierce Cook, Walter Bollendonk, and Marian Williams Steele. He joined the artist memberships in the Delaware Society of Artists, Wilmington, DE, The Chester County Art Association, West Chester, PA, and the Newburyport Art Association, Newburyport, MA.

Roy enrolled in the University of Delaware summer of 1968 receiving his BAAS degree in 1973 the same year he was ‘grandfathered’ as a FELLOW into the professional ranks of the American Institute of Conservators (AIC) from the International Conservator Group (IIC).

 In 1969 Roy assisted his friend Ted Segal, painting conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on painting conservation projects unrelated to the museums collections.

In 1975 Roy was in the graduate program at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia painting cityscapes with instructor David G. Pease.

  Roy is a charter artist and/or long time standing exhibiting member of many art and museum affiliations.  Major works by Roy are in numerous public and private collections around the country.

Roy was juried into the professional artist membership of the Delaware Foundation for the Visual Arts (DFVA) in 2001 and was elected as an Artist Member of the Board in 2004.

Roy and his wife Lois maintain a studio and home in north Wilmington, DE