Joan Warburton was a British painter. Born in 1920, Warburton received an exemplary education in her childhood. It was at finishing school in Belgium, whilst on the path to conventional future among the upper-middle class, that Warburton was first introduced to the creative, impassioned life of the artist. Upon her return to England in 1937 she enrolled at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. The school, famed for its free-form approach to teaching, encouraged Warburton’s artistic skill and her social enjoyment to flourish. It was here in the Suffolk countryside that her artistic appreciation for horticulture first began and, though Warburton left the school in order to serve in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the war, the influence of her time in Suffolk would be evident throughout her career.

After the end of the war, Warburton moved to London where she became a popular feature among many artistic circles. Her paintings were varied in subject matter, though her still life studies (most often including, if not focusing solely on, flowers and plants) were among her most successful and unique works. During her time in London, she exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Leicester Galleries among others. In 1969 Warburton returned to Suffolk, where she continued to paint with great enthusiasm late in to her life. The artist died in 1996.