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Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a painter and printmaker known for her abstract depictions of natural phenomena. Shortly after completing her education at Edinburgh College of Art (1932–37) she moved to St Ives (Cornwall) upon receipt of a travel scholarship in 1940. Barns-Graham became part of the St Ives School, an influential circle of abstract artists known for their contribution to British Modernism in the 1940s and 50s. She eventually broke away from this group to co-found the less traditional Penwith Society of Art (1949). Barns-Graham remained in St Ives on a permanent basis until 1973, when she inherited a house near to St Andrews in Scotland. She spent the remainder of her six-decade-long career dividing her time between Scotland and Cornwall. Both locations provided natural inspiration – sun on glaciers, rain on clay, wind on sand, and volcanic rocks – which she captured in abstract form. Despite painting consistently throughout her life, Barns-Graham disappeared from critical view in the late 1950s for nearly 25 years. A large retrospective in 1989 sought to assert her prominence within British Abstract Modernism. Recognition also came in the form of a CBE (2000) and Honorary Degrees from University of St. Andrews, University of Plymouth, and University of Exeter.