Brenda Pye

Her earliest years were spent at her birthplace: Shortwood House, Litton, in Somerset, to which her father had retired from his London practice.

A three-quarter length portrait of her in the gardens of Shortwood House in the summer of 1914, was painted by Henry Strachey, at that time the art critic of the Spectator, who lived nearby.

A review of the College's annual exhibition in The Times on 24 June 1925 (p 8 column F) singled out the work of Brenda Capron for "particular mention".

He had a studio built for her in the grounds of his Jacobean farmhouse in Buxted, Sussex, and Brenda Pye (as she now was), entered her most prolific period as an artist.

She was commissioned to paint many portraits, including the journalist and broadcaster Fyfe Robertson and the Headmaster of the London Oratory School John McIntosh OBE.

After her second marriage, she favoured brighter colours and a softer, less precise draughtsmanship than before the War and she was a very rapid worker, whether painting portraits or landscape.

The winners have been: In 2009, Chelsea College of Art and Design is also running a series of Brenda Landon Pye Painting Technique Workshops.