Although Garfield Dyer was born at Redruth, Cornwall he grew up and lived at Camborne throughout his life. By profession a hairdresser, he studied art at Camborne and later the Redruth School of Art under the tutelage of Arthur Creed HAMBLY from the 1930s to the 1950s. At Redruth he was a contemporary of Sven BERLIN.

During WWII he sketched in Egypt and Ceylon.  Working almost exclusively in watercolour, he produced works of the Camborne and Hayle districts, maintaining a special interest in the mining landscape.  In the 1960s he produced some works in oils and acrylics that he sold through the family art shop, W Dyer & Sons in Camborne. Latterly he seldom painted.

He was a nationally-known collector and authority on early English watercolours, and the founder of the Dyer Collection of Early English Watercolours, works by Cornish artists and the works of Joshua CRISTALL.

He published two pamphlets on the life and works of Joshua Cristall, who had served as the President of the Old Water Colour Society (later RWS). The first was awarded the Silver Medal of the RCPS in the Sir Edward Nicholl Prize Essay Competition of 1958. The second pamphlet accompanied an exhibition of the works of Joshua Cristall at Camborne Public Library in 1962.