Borlase was born at Dulwich in London and grew up Margate, where her father was a plumber.[1] She studied at the Bromley School of Art between 1940 and 1944 and then at the Royal College of Art in London for a further two years.[2] After graduating she taught at the Harrow School of Art for two years and then at the Kingston School of Art until 1950.[3] After a career break, Borlase returned to art in 1967, creating landscapes of Venice and, later, of Carperby in north Yorkshire where the family had a cottage from 1961.[3][1] She was commissioned for six paintings by St Luke's Hospital in Bradford.[3] As well as painting Borlase took up print making after taking a course at Morley College in 1977 and in the 1990s began experimenting with computer graphics and also decorating furniture.[3] Borlase was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London and in group shows. She had a solo show at the David Thompson Gallery in 1979 and exhibited on a regular basis at the Broughton House Gallery in Cambridge from 1989.[3] Later she regularly showed new work with the Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk.[1]
While a student at the Royal College of Art, Borlase met, and later married, the artist Frederick Brill, (1920–1984), who became the principal of the Chelsea Art School.[2] The couple's work was subject of a two person exhibition in 1986 and featured in the 1993 exhibition Relative Values at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling.[3] Borlase's paintings featured in the exhibition The Secret to a Good Life which opened at the Royal Academy in September 2018, some months after she died.[4][5] The exhibition was curated by one of her three children, the artist Bob and Roberta Smith.[4][5]
