Originally from Cumberland, the artist first came to Newlyn from her London home to visit her brother, Joey CARTER- WOOD, a talented student at the FORBES SCHOOL. Harold KNIGHT painted her - Portrait of Florence - during her visits (1909-1911), and many others were to follow. She decided that she too would take up landscape painting and attend the Forbes School.

In the Newlyn-Lamorna circle she met Alfred James MUNNINGS, marrying him on 19 January 1912 in Westminster. He painted her frequently, four times on horseback. Seemingly unhappy in their marriage from the beginning, despite their shared love of painting and equestrian activities, Florence died by her own hand of cyanide poisoning on 24 July 1914 at Mrs Jory's Cliff House Hotel (now the Lamorna Cove Hotel), where she and AJ were staying. Her death was the source of Laura KNIGHT's cryptic comment in Oil Paint and Grease Paint, that 'Suddenly the death of a much-loved member of our colony put an end to all joy.' She is buried in Sancreed Graveyard.