Diana Armfield RA HNEAC PS

Statement

Diana Armfield says that she paints subjects that enhance life and need cherishing, even protecting. She seeks out a harmony from the chosen scene to share with others. Painting makes the subject permanently special for her.

“Of course life receives powerful negative forces as well as positive, but unless a harmony is achieved in the work, it can’t be art, only just a reflection of life. Great artists can reconcile in their work both the positive and negative.”

For Diana, it stretches her talent enough to learn from her subject and attempt to order it into something meaningful that enriches life.

Methodology

Armfield works in several media; each can individually influence the method. Working outside, response to the subject is paramount. Once the choice of toned support and boundaries is acknowledged, the scene itself will seem to dictate what follows. Back in the studio, the outcome will get a long appraisal. If then developed in the studio, her emphasis shifts to thoughts of geometry, memory, imagination, possibly a drawing will come into play.

Flowers are seldom static. At first she will attempt to establish dominant blooms against precise indications of the more stable elements; exhilarating, sometimes despairing, rarely abandoned.

Pastels, usually based on sketchbook drawings; they seem to her, appropriate for town or café scenes. Figures, dogs get added from memory, imagination, or the sketchbook. They become alive to her, developing personalities and situations, rather in the way that characters in novels do for authors. Observed drawing underpins all her work.

Bio

1920 Born on June 11

Educated, Bedales, Bounmouth Art, Slade School, Central School

1942 to 46 Cultural Activities Organiser, Ministry of Supply

1946 to 52 Armfield Passano partnership for designing and printing fabrics and wall papers

1949 Married Bernard Dunstan

1949 to 50 Tutor in the Textile Department at Central School of Arts and Crafts

1959 to 90 Taught at Byam Shaw Art School

1959 to 91 Visiting Tutor at various art schools

1970 Elected a Member of the New English Art Club

1975 Elected a Member of the Royal West of England Academy

1980 Elected a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society

1991 to 92 Elected a Member of the Central Royal Academy

Memberships

Royal West of England Academy, Hon. Ret.

Royal Watercolour Society, Hon. Ret.

Royal Cambrian Academy, Hon. Ret.

Royal Academy, 1991, Assn. 1989