Prunella Clough was born in London in 1919. She studied at Chelsea School of Art and during the war worked as a draughtsman of maps and charts. She was a highly influential artist and teacher to the post-war generation.
Clough spent time on the North Suffolk coastline from childhood, lodging at Woldside, Constitution Hill, Southwold and returned in 1945 and purchased her former lodgings and owning the house until 1966. She exhibited at such Suffolk venues as Festival of Art at Eye Town Hall in May 1951, though later in her career she concentrated her activity in London with frequent weekends in France.
Towards the end of her career her work bordered on abstraction but often involved found detritus from advanced capitalism, such as a fragment of bubble wrap, to create a new minimal abstract language.
In 1999, three months before her death, she won the prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize. In 2007 she had a major exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.