Versatile artist, letter-cutter and restorer, who studied at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1979–82, then sculpture restoration and conservation at City and Guilds of London Art School until 1985. Held several residencies and showed widely, with work in public collections. Her 1996 steel and concrete sculpture Circling Partridges, commissioned by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, stands in Hedley Lane, Sunniside. Ainsworth was based in Edinburgh.