Steeplechasing by Sybil Andrews

Sybil Andrews was born in 1898 in Bury St Edmunds, a town that she often used as her subject in later life. During World War One she was apprenticed as a welder at an aeroplane factory. However, she had been painting since she was a child, and during the war, had studied with John Hassall’s Art Correspondence Course in her spare time. 

After the war was over, she moved back to Bury St Edmunds, where she became an art teacher at Portland House School, and met Cyril Power, with whom she relocated to London. They worked together for many years, sharing a studio, as well as an exhibition, in 1933. Andrews registered at Heatherley's School of Fine Art in 1922 and upon graduation in 1925 worked as a secretary at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art where she started to produce linocuts - following the teaching of Claude Flight.