Skip to navigation | Skip to search
RA Magazine talks to Joe TIlson RA
Photograph by Eamonn McCabe.
RA Magazine talks to Chris Wilkinson RA
Photograph by Julian Anderson.
RA Magazine talks to Peter Cook RA
Photograph by Eamonn McCabe.
RA Magazine talks to Richard Wilson RA
Photograph by Julian Anderson.
Born: 11 June 1920, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
Elected ARA: 1 June 1989
Elected RA: 26 June 1991
Category of Membership: Painter
I work from observation and experience; draw and paint what I can admire, enjoy or love; to share with others what I discover and reflect on. I hope to reveal and confirm that the things and experiences I paint are of lasting importance and enormously worth cherishing. To translate into paint is always a challenge and something of a mystery.
Diana Armfield RA
Diana Armfield RA, 'Flowers in June' Diana Armfield studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts. She was Artist in Residence in Perth, Australia in 1985, and in Jackson, Wyoming, USA in 1989.
She started her career in textile and wallpaper design in partnership with Roy Passano; they contributed to the 1951 Festival of Britain and examples of their work are in the permanent collection at the V&A.
After teaching at the Byam Shaw School of Art for some years, Armfield turned to painting in 1965 and has pursued a successful career ever since. ‘I enjoy the different challenges offered by working in pastel, watercolour and print making, but return to the two first and drawing as fundamental to my way of observing and translating.’ In 2010 Browse and Darby held an exhibition to mark Armfield’s 90th birthday and she was the featured artist in the RWS Spring Show 2011.
Diana Armfield was elected a full Member of the Royal Academy in 1991. She is also a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Cambrian Society (Hon Retired) and an Honorary Member of the Pastel Society and the New English Art Club. She lives in London and Wales and continues to exhibit extensively.
Read an interview with Diana Armfield in RA Magazine Spring 2006
Diana Armfield RA, 'Dawn Flush on the Snow, Llwynhir' Recent solo exhibitions
2013 Mall Galleries, London
2010 Browse & Darby, London
2006 Albany Gallery, Cardiff
Browse & Darby, London
2005 New Academy Gallery, London
2004 Sheen Gallery, London
2001 Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy
Albany Gallery, Cardiff
2000 Browse & Darby, London
1999 Bedales Centenary Exhibition, London
1998 Princes as Patrons, Museum Cardiff
Gallery Gerard, Wassenaar, Holland
1996 Browse & Darby, London
Canalfan y Plase, Bala
1995 Royal Academy of Arts (Friends’ Room)
Albany Gallery, Cardiff
Glyn-y-Weddw, North Wales
1993 Browse & Darby, London
1990 Browse & Darby, London
Public collections
Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Textiles)
Government Art Collection
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Yale Centre for British Art
Contemporary Art Society for Wales
British Museum (RWS permanent collection)
Lancaster City Art Gallery
Faringdon Collection
Commissions
Reuters
National Trust
HRH Prince of Wales: Paintings of Highgrove
Contemporary Art Society for Wales
Publications
The Art of Diana Armfield, Julian Halsby, David & Charles, 1995
The Simon and Schuster Pocket Guide to Painting in Oils, Diana Armfield, 1982
The Simon and Schuster Pocket Guide to Drawing, Diana Armfield, 1982
Drawing (A Mitchell Beazley handbook), Diana Armfield, 1983
Painting in Oils: A practical step by step guide (A Mitchell Beazley handbook), Diana Armfield, 1983
Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk
