Diana Armfield, RA RWS RWA NEAC RCamA
Diana Armfield was born on 11 June 1920 in Ringwood, Hampshire. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1949 she married Bernard Dunstan, also an artist. She went to teach at the Byam Shaw School of Art in 1959. Her work has been shown regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition since 1965. She was Artist in Residence in Perth, Australia in 1985 and in Jackson, Wyoming, USA in 1989. In 1989 she was elected to the Royal Academy, becoming a full Member in 1991 and a full Academician in 1992. She is an editorial consultant for Leisure Painter magazine, to which she also contributes features.
Known especially as a painter of flowers, she belongs to a tradition that reaches back through the French Impressionists to Fantin Latour. Her personal vision is expressed through wild flowers and informal arrangements, and her work in this field is considered some of the most influential of the 20th century post World War II. Her landscapes, from midday sun on a Tuscan hillside to soft Venetian rain, from a fresh spring morning in New York to the drama of the Welsh landscapes, are masterpieces of mood.
Other than a member of the Royal Academy, Armfield is also a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the New English Art Club, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Cambrian Society (Hon Retired) and an Honorary Member of the Pastel Society. She lives in both Wales and London.
Commissions:
1986-87: Reuters
1988: National Trust
1989: HRH Prince of Wales
1990: Contemporary Art Society, Wales
Known especially as a painter of flowers, she belongs to a tradition that reaches back through the French Impressionists to Fantin Latour. Her personal vision is expressed through wild flowers and informal arrangements, and her work in this field is considered some of the most influential of the 20th century post World War II. Her landscapes, from midday sun on a Tuscan hillside to soft Venetian rain, from a fresh spring morning in New York to the drama of the Welsh landscapes, are masterpieces of mood.
Other than a member of the Royal Academy, Armfield is also a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the New English Art Club, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Cambrian Society (Hon Retired) and an Honorary Member of the Pastel Society. She lives in both Wales and London.
Commissions:
1986-87: Reuters
1988: National Trust
1989: HRH Prince of Wales
1990: Contemporary Art Society, Wales
