Born 8 June, St Andrews, Fife

1924

Family moved to Stirlingshire

1930

Visited Paris and Rouen

1932

Edinburgh College of Art, Diploma course (Painting) DAE

1933-34

Studio at St Andrews, while recovering from illness

1934-37

Continued at Edinburgh College of Art

1936-40

Studio at 5 Alva Street, Edinburgh

1937

Awarded ECA Andrew Grant Vacation Scholarship to study at the International Exhibition Paris. Travels to Paris and the South of France in the company of Margaret Mellis.

1939

Worked in Scotland (Aviemore and Rothiemurchus)

1940

Went to Cornwall with award as recommended by Hubert Wellington.  Met Adrian Stokes and his wife Margaret Mellis, with whom she had been at art college in Edingburgh, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum and Miriam Gabo,Herbert Read, Borlase Smart, John and Elizabeth Summerson, Margaret Gardiner, Bernard Leach and Alfred Wallis.

Moved into No. 3 Porthmeor Studios

1942

Became member of Newlyn Society of Artists and St Ives Society of Artists.

Met John Wells

1943

Introduced Borlase Smart to Nicholson and Hepworth

1945

Private teaching (1945-47)

Moved to No. 1 Porthmeor Studios

First met David Haughton, Bryan Wynter, Guido Morris

1946

First meetings of Crypt Group in her studio

1947-48

Crypt Group second and third exhibitions

Met David Lewis (married 1949, annulled 1963)

1949

Worked on glacier drawings and gouaches in Switzerland

Worked in Paris

Founder member of the Penwith Society of Artists

Resigned from the St Ives Society of Artists with 16 others

1950

Visits Italy; attends Hepworth opening at Venice Biennale

1951

Worked in Italy and Scilly Isles

1954

Travelled to Paris with David Lewis and Roger Hilton With Nicholson, visited the director of Aujourd'hui  at his glass-wall house

Visited Veira de Silva

Travelled to Venice, met Peggy Guggenheim

Worked in Tuscany

1955

Worked in Tuscany, Calabria and Sicily

Met Poliakoff, Istrati and Michel Seuphor, visited studios of

Brancusi, Arp, Giacometti and Pevsner

1956-57

On staff of Leeds School of Art

1958

Worked in Spain, France and the Balearics

1960

Inherited a Balmungo estate, near St Andrews

1961-63

Rents studio in London

1963

Returned to St Ives

1963-65

Worked in Scotland and St Ives

1966

Visit to Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam

1967

Visit to America

1973-92

Working in St Ives and St Andrews

1984-85

Working in Orkney

1989-90

Working in Lanzarote

1991

Visit to Barcelona

1991-92

Working in Lanzarote

1992

Received Honorary Doctorate, University of St.Andrews

Honorary Member Penwith Society and Newlyn Society

1987-04

Working in St. Ives and St. Andrews

1987

Establishes the Barns-Graham Trust (activated upon her death in 2004)

1999

Honorary Member RSA and RSW and Scottish Arts Club

2000

Received Honorary Doctorate, University of Plymouth

2001 

Awarded CBE

Awarded Honorary Doctorate, University of Exeter

2003

Awarded Honorary Doctorate, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh

2004

Died 26 January, St Andrews