Joan Warburton (1920–1996) was a British painter associated with the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, where she studied under Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. A contemporary of Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling, Warburton absorbed Benton End’s distinctive approach to colour and design, marked by close observation, individualism, and disciplined structure.

Warburton’s work spans still lifes, landscapes, interiors, and architectural subjects, often rendered in watercolour or oil with clear outlines, muted tonal harmonies, and a quiet sense of atmosphere. Her technique reveals both precision and restraint, qualities that set her apart from many of her peers within the Benton End circle.

She exhibited regularly from the 1940s, showing at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club, and the Women’s International Art Club. Warburton’s work was championed in later years by Sally Hunter Fine Art, which mounted several solo and group exhibitions, and by the Medici Gallery’s Joan Warburton & The Benton End Effect (2014), which renewed interest in her career.

Examples of her work are held in private and public collections, and her reputation continues to grow as part of the wider reassessment of post-war British painting and the legacy of Benton End.