Sandy Wadlington was born in Boston. She grew up in in an old farmhouse with a pond in the back yard and woods nearby. As a child, she did lots of drawing. In 1969 she enrolled in Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1978 she moved to San Antonio, Texas. She worked in the Production Department of the Institute of Texan Cultures. She ran the graphic darkroom and silkscreen shop, and did some illustration and design. Gradually her desire to draw and paint- not just on weekends- returned. She moved back to Massachusetts to finish art school, this time at Mass Art. She studied with George Nick and in 1989 she received her BFA in Painting. Nick's emphasis was to make interesting paintings from direct observation. Wadlington, a studio painter who does landscapes and works primarily in pastel, worked from her photographs. Her current influences are color, light, composition and sense of place. She lives in Bradford, New Hampshire and is surrounded by woods, farms, ponds, lakes and mountains.