Pen Dalton, of Irish extraction, was brought up in South London, attended state school and now lives and works in a vibrant artistic community in NE London. In the late 1960s she studied fine art at the prestigious Goldsmiths art school when, soon after qualifying she received her real art education through the burgeoning Women’s Movement. For many years she ran a screenprinting workshop publishing polemical posters, prints, illustrations and articles in radical journals. At the same time she continued researching subjectivity and family relations through painting. She was employed as Senior Lecturer on BA Art and Social Context Degree at radical Dartington College of Arts and on Masters Courses in Psychology and Art at Birmingham School of Art, publishing, exhibiting and lecturing internationally. For the last 20 years she has eschewed academic work, continuing her understanding of subjectivity in formal abstract painting.