SCARBOROUGH – Matriarch of the Valdmanis family, celebrated Higgins Beach watercolor artist and former Montreal educator, Sandra Warren Valdmanis passed away peacefully on May 10, 2024 in Scarborough, at the age of 83, surrounded by her four sons, three daughters-in-law and eight grandchildren.

Inspired by the works of Maine watercolor painters Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, Sandra captured the beauty of southern Maine, the dynamic forces of the Atlantic Ocean, and the joy of local and vacationing families. Her art endures in the collections of prominent art enthusiasts in the U.S., UK and Canada.

Born on July 22, 1940 in Montreal, Sandra was the daughter of Ian Warren, a senior executive at Canadian Pacific Railways, and Myra Byrd, an accomplished figure skater. She grew up in the predominantly Anglophone Montreal enclave of Westmount. As a student at independent girls school ECS, Sandra made friends who supported and sustained her for the rest of her life. She met her future husband, Gundars Valdmanis, a McGill University student and son of a former Latvian finance minister, on a tennis court in Westmount Park. Married in 1962, the couple had four sons before an amicable divorce in 1978.

Trying to find a suitable spot for a family vacation at the ocean, Sandra discovered, in the late ’70s, Higgins Beach, a six-hour drive from Montreal; it was love at first sight. With help from a dear friend from her ECS days, she eventually bought a home on Greenwood Avenue in 1995 and moved there after retiring from her work as the activities director at the Westmount Senior Citizens Center.

Sandra believed deeply in education, founding the Dominion Douglas daycare school in Westmount in the early 1970s. She earned her B.A. in Education at Concordia University in Montreal and taught at St. George’s Academy. She later earned a master’s in Gerontology from the University of Southern Maine. She volunteered for many years at the Scarborough Public Library. During the last eight years, Sandra enjoyed the oceanfront view from the Yellow House at the end of Morning Street, which further inspired her landscape art.

Sandra is survived by her children, Thor, Robert, Warren, and Richard, daughters-in-law, Kristin, Kelly and Lisa; and grandchildren, Elisabeth, Ian, Laird, Dylan, Finlay, Anna, Philippa and Teddy; and her beloved dachshund, Marigold.

A celebration of Sandra’s life will be held later this summer. Arrangements are under the direction of the Conroy-Tully Walker South Portland Chapel. To view Sandra’s memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit http://www.ConroyTullyWalker.com

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Lymphedema Society https://lymphnet.org/donate.

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