Sydney Josephine Bland was born in York to Irish parents. In 1891 the family were living at Northam in Devon, at which time she was known as 'Kate'. In 1901 she was at school in Willesden, London, and in 1911 was working as a hospital nurse in the City of London. Between 1920 and 1922 she studied art at Heatherley's under Henry Massey, and also at Goldsmiths with Harold Speed (1922-3). She undertook further study with Bernard Adams. During the 1930s she had a studio in the Fulham Road, London, and first exhibited with SWA in 1938.

Her scenes of Newlyn and Polperro indicated a love of Cornwall. She exhibited a watercolour of Polperro at the RI in 1940. In 1945 a Polperro subject was included in her exhibits at the Newlyn Society of Artists. By 1948 she was living at 35 Fore Street, Newlyn, later moving to Swan's Flight, Boase Street. In 1964 (by then in her 80s) she moved to Ingwenia at Carbis Bay. She remained in Cornwall for the rest of her life.