Trained at the South Kensington Art School (now the Royal College of Art) she then studied in New York (1877 – 1880) before being encouraged to study in Munich.  A plein-air painter she joined an artist colony at Pont-Aven in Brittany where she taught etching whilst also painting and sending her works to London to sell. Armstrong and her mother moved to Newlyn (1885) where she established a studio in a shed also used to store fishing gear. She is pictured in her studio (bottom right) and it was in Newlyn that she met Stanhope.

In 1904, they settled at their own self-designed home, ‘Higher Faugan’ (pictured bottom far left in a painting by Stanhope) and together they opened the Newlyn Art School and the Newlyn Art Gallery with funding from Passmore Edwards (February 24^th) .

Her work often included children, exemplified by ‘Toddler with a Rattle’ (left middle), and she developed a national reputation, displayed at over sixty exhibitions between 1883 and 1899, including the Royal Academy.

It has been written that her popularity arose not just from her talents but also from the subject matter which resonated with nostalgic concepts of provincial life and the pious and moral values valued by many of her time. This is demonstrated by ‘Ring a Ring O'Roses’ (1880, bottom second from right) and ‘School Is Out’ (1889, bottom second from left).

In 1900, her ‘Children and Child Lore’ exhibition at the Fine Art Society featured many works inspired by Thomas Cooper 'T.C.' Gotch (December 10^th) and she wrote and illustrated a number of childrens’ books.

Diagnosed with cancer in 1909, she spent time in France and in London seeking treatment and restorative cures but died in 1912.