Born in London in 1931, she spent her childhood in Cornwall until the end of the war in 1945.Studied at Goldsmiths College 1949-52, and at the R.C.A 1952-55. In the late 1950s Riley works for an advertising agency to support her painting career. Her work becomes heavily influenced by the Pointillist ideas of Seurat and also the Futurist ideas of conveying movement. This lead to the bold black and white paintings of the early 1960s that we now call Op Art. During the late 1960s Riley started to introduce colour in to her work, from the 1970s onwards, pure colour dominates her paintings. Riley`s travels to the Sub Continent and North Africa have a large influence on her work.
In 1968 she became the first ever woman to win the international prize for painting at the Venice Biennale and in 1999 she was awarded the Companion of Honour. Today she is regarded as one of the great painters of recent times.
