Vera Blackburn took private art classes with Thea Proctor in 1931, who taught her how to make linocuts. She also studied for five years at the Adelaide Perry Art School in Sydney before leaving for England with her father in 1937. While in the UK she studied at the Westminster School of Art under Meninsky and Gertler among others, and was friends with a number of expatriate artists including Jean Bellette, Eric Wilson, John Passmore and William Dobell. She remained in England after marrying in London in 1939, when she ceased to make art.

"This linocut with its undulating line of swans was inspired by a passage in Tchaikovsky's music for 'Swan Lake' which the artist had recently seen. She had also been reading an Irish legend about the Children of Lir who were transformed into swans by an enchantment."
Roger Butler, 1979

© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2006