Frances studied visual art at Aberystwyth University College of Wales, L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Nantes, Goldsmiths’ College and has an MA in printmaking from Wimbledon College of Art. She was a senior tutor at West Dean College from 1995 – 2022. In 2005 a Research Bursary from DVA/ExLab supported her study of the history and craft of making and consolidating pigments. Frances has published a number of books about her projects and has also contributed to a number of other books both as an illustrator and practitioner.

Frances has exhibited widely throughout the UK including repeatedly in highly regarded competitive London group exhibitions including the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, the Works on Paper Fair, The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (RI), the Ing Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

In 2016, Frances was awarded the Shenzhen International Watercolour Biennial Prize at the RI exhibition at the Mall Galleries. This is ‘an award to encourage innovation and experimentation in contemporary watermedia.’

In 2020 she curated a show of her paintings with ceramics by world-class potters entitled The Common Ground at the Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Arts, Farnham. She was elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in 2022 (ARWS). She was awarded Abbotsbury Landscape Artist of the Year 2023. Frances has shown regularly at Sladers Yard since 2015.