Carolina Helena (Wilkinson) Armington was born September 11, 1875, in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. She studied art in 1890 under J.W.L. Forster in Toronto where she met her future husband, the artist Frank Armington. After 1892, she taught in Halifax and became a nursing student in Guelph, Ontario. In 1899, Armington worked as a nurse in New York at Miss Alston's Hospital.

From 1899-1900, Armington was a private nurse in Toronto. In 1900, she traveled to England and France, arriving finally in Paris where she married Frank Armington. In 1901, Armington relocated to Winnipeg where she began giving painting lessons. In 1905, Armington moved to Paris with her husband where she attended the Academie de la Grande...