Painter, born in Epsom, Surrey, who attended the Central School of Art & Design, 1987–8; graduated with honours, Winchester School of Art, 1989–92; gaining her master’s in painting, Royal College of Art, 1996–8. Won an Erasmus Award, Barcelona, Spain, 1990; Atlantida Travel Award, Kassel, Germany, 1992; John Crane Award, New York, America, and Socrates Award, Berlin, Germany, both 1997; a Daler-Rowney Award for Painting, 1998; and the Jerwood Painting Prize, 2001. Pratt treated the first splash of paint as a found object, which set off a chain of reactions and discoveries. The paint dripped, congealed, coagulated, wrinkled, scraped, tore, curled and buckled, the finished works looking as if they were “perpetually hovering over the brink”.