Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, CBE, Artist (b. June 8, 1912)
 
Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was one of the foremost British abstract artists, a member of the influential Penwith Society of Arts.  As a child she showed very early signs of creative ability. Determining while at school that she wanted to be an artist, she set her sights on Edinburgh College of Art where, after some dispute with her father, she enrolled in 1931, and after periods of illness, from which she graduated with her diploma in 1937.  According to the Financial Times critic, she produced her best work in the decade before her death, aged 91, in 2004.  "Now I am at a stage of urgency," she said in 2001.  "My theme is celebration of life, joy, the importance of color, form, space ad texture.  Brushstrokes that can be happy, risky, thin, fat, fluid and textured.  Having a positive mind and constantly being aware and hopefully being allowed to live longer to increase this celebration."