This month’s issue cover artist is Gillian Ayres, one of many talented artists exhibiting at the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition now in its 242nd year.

Gillian Ayres studied at the Camberwell School of Art. After leaving in 1950, she began to paint abstracts, with her first solo exhibition being held in the mid-1950s. Ayres was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1989. In 1986 she was made an OBE, and in 1991 become a Royal Academician. Ayres’ early works were typically made with thin vinyl paint making up relatively simply forms from a limited colour palate, but later oil painted works are much more colourful and exuberant, as seen above in this month’s cover art.