Brenda Bury (born 1932) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

professional portrait artist based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. She has painted members of the British Royal Family, the aristocracy, and politicians in the British and Canadian governments. She has painted

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

and

John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...

. Her portrait of

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at '' The Observer'', he praised Osborne's '' Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...

is in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

. Bury is married to

John Polanyi John Charles Polanyi ( hu, Polányi János Károly; born 23 January 1929) is a German-born Canadian chemist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics. Polanyi was born into the prominent Hungari ...

Early life and education

Bury was born in Brierley near Barnsley, England in 1932.A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada When she was seven years old she won a

National Savings In economics, a country's national saving is the sum of private and public saving. It equals a nation's income minus consumption and the government spending. Economic model Closed economy with public deficit or surplus possible In this ...

painting competition and, at 12, won a youth club painting competition. She later studied Fine Art at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

with Antony Betts where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a student, she was given brushes originally owned by

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading p ...

by a Reading University Professor.

References

1932 births Living people 20th-century English painters 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century English women artists 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century Canadian women artists 21st-century English women artists Alumni of the University of Reading English women painters English portrait painters Canadian portrait painters Canadian women painters {{England-painter-stub