Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and teacher, born in Wallasey, Cheshire, where she attended the Art School, 1930–4, under William Green and Gordon MacPherson, then Royal College of Art, 1934–8, under Barnett Freedman, whose work she always admired. She married the painter Leonard Appelbee. A portrait of Stanley Morison in Oliver Simon’s magazine Signature led to Macdonald becoming an Official War Artist, 1940–6, her painting of the building of a Mulberry Harbour being accepted by the Tate Gallery. Also worked for the Pilgrim Trust’s Recording Britain project. Macdonald taught at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art, 1946–8; at Beckenham, 1957–69; Byam Shaw School, 1963–4; and Ruskin School, Oxford, 1964. She showed at Leicester Galleries, Wildenstein, the Festival of Britain 60 Paintings for ’51 show and elsewhere.