John Tunnard

Born in Sandy, Bedfordshire, Tunnard studied design at the Royal College of Art (1919-23) and began his career as a textile designer. However, from 1929 he turned to painting, and in 1933 moved to Cornwall, where he often used the natural world as a starting point for his abstract and semi-abstract compositions. A conscientious objector, he served as a coastguard in Cornwall during the Second World War. He taught design at Penzance School of Art (1948-64).

Text © National Portrait Gallery, London