Famous Canadian Women On the Job

Cartoonists

Geneviève Elverum 3839 née Gosselin. Born April 9, 1981, Loretteville, Quebec. Died July 9, 2016 Anacortes, Washington, U.S.A. Like many kids she enjoyed comics like Tintin but she took it to the next step and began creating them herself. She took the name Geneviève Castrée and published minicomics. In 2000 she published her first book Lait Frappé. In 2004 she married musician, Phil Elverum, and the couple had one child. By 2004 she had published three more books. Her book Susceptible, a graphic novel, published in 2012 provided international success and she followed it with a book of poems in French, Maman Savage in 2015. A self taught musician, she would also recorded and release eight albums of music under the names of Woelv and O Paon. Two additional books were published after her death, including Maman Apprivoisée which included poems in French and English. (2022)

Marie Louise Gay Born June 17, 1952, Quebec City, Quebec. A professional illustrator and editorial cartoon artist Marie eventually took an interest in working on books for young readers. She soon found that she preferred to illustrate her own writings so that the pictures and words would flow together to tell a story. She does a lot of research prior to putting pen, ink and watercolours to paper. Many of her books have won awards such as the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, the Governor General's Award, Mr. Christie's Book Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, and the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award!! (2021)

Lynn Johnston Born May 28, 1947, Collingwood, Ontario. Lynn grew up in North Vancouver, British Columbia and studied at the Vancouver School of Art, now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. In 1969 she married and the couple relocated back to Ontario where she worked as a medical artist at the McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Pregnant with her 1st child she presented her obstetrician with drawings which he could place on his otherwise boring ceiling. These drawings were the bas of her 1st boo, David We're Pregnant in 1973. After her divorce she published Hi Mom! Hi Dad! in 1975. She then married dentist Rod Johnston and the family relocated to the remote community of Lynn Lake, Manitoba. When she submitted panels for a comic strip to the Universal Press Syndicate she was offered a 20 year contract. For Better For Worse was a Canadian hit and was carried by about 2000 newspapers internationally. The storyline and the characters lead real lives with friends admitting to being gay and the family dog dies after rescuing a child. Lynn continued to work from her home in Corbeil, Northern Ontario. She became the first woman to win the Reuben Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year in 1985 from the national Cartoonist Society In 1987 she earned a Gemini Award for Best Cartoon Series and in 1988 she became the 1st woman to be president of the Cartoonist Society. In 1991 she received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award.   She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1992 and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for the story o Lawrence's coming out. in 2001 she was the winner of the Comic of the Year, Editor and Publisher. In 2003 she was honoured with a Star on Canada's Walk of Fame, Toronto. In 2007 she was inducted into the Order of Manitoba and she and her husband became separated. In 2008 she was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame and the National Cartoon Museum Hall of Fame. In 2015 she relocated back to North Vancouver. The Library and Archives Canada holds a large collection of her original works. (2022)

Sandra Bell-Lundy Born April 3, 1958. Sandra studied French at Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, but it would be her talent as an cartoonist that would become her profession. She actually created comics for her university newspaper when she was a student. She is the author of the worldwide syndicated comic strip Between Friends. In 1994 her work caught the attention of King Features and the cartoon strip became syndicated in 175 newspapers internationally. She is married to Tim Lundy and the couple have two daughters. Her work has garnered notice from various organizations such as the North American Council on Adoptable Children and the Cancer society for featuring stories. Her comic strips have been collected and published in books. She is a member of the National Cartoonists Society. (2021)

Designers                       Return to categories

Sigrun Bulow-Hube Born January 31, 1913, Linkoping, Sweden. Died May 30, 1994, Brome, Quebec. Sigrun studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, School of Architecture, Interior and Furniture Design. She was active in housing research and worked to further the recognition and professional status of designers within Canada. Coming to Canada in 1950 she won a dozen design awards in recognition of her work by the National Industry Design Council of Canada. In 1973 she was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development of modern interior design in Canada. (2020)

Elizabeth Jean Reed
née Maclean. Born 1910, Soures, Prince Edward Island. Died ???? Jean earned a degree in Fine Arts at Mount Allison University. In 1959-1960 she created the winning design for the provincial tartan. The design encompassed the warmth and glow of the fertile soil, the green of the fields and trees, the yellow and brown of the autumn and the life giving sun and the white of the surf on a summer sea. In 1938 she attended the Ottawa Civic Hospital to study nursing. In 1941 she was an army Lieutenant Nursing Sister serving in the European theatre of World War II (1939-1945). She joined the Red Cross Arts and Crafts League after the war and engaged in pottery and weaving while she worked at the P. E. I. Hospital. Source: Outstanding women of Prince Edward Island Compiled by the Zonta Club of Charlottetown, 1981. (2022)

Sylvia Tennisco

Indigenous Artist
Born 1970, Pembroke, Ontario. Sylvia's family moved to Ottawa where she grew up. She studied and received her graphic design diploma at St Lawrence College, Kingston Campus, in 1997. Moving to Montreal she pursued her art career by illustrating several children’s books in the Cree language. She did spot illustrations for various magazines and worked as a Graphic Designer. She moved back to the Ottawa Valley where she promotes Native Awareness and Cultural Diversity. Her works show various mediums such as acrylic/oil pints to mix media and acrylic/computer designs and inks. She has had sever Art Exhibits at various Powwows in Ontario, community centers such as at Golden Lake and surrounding areas, Queen’s University, Kingston , Ontario, and the New Edinburgh area in Ottawa. Source: Art Card purchased at Golden Lake, Ontario. (2020)

Fashion Designers    Return to categories

Hilary Corbett Born 1929, Summerset, England. Died December 5, 2004, Toronto, Ontario. She worked as a costume cutter in England prior to 1964 when she moved to Stratford, Ontario to work as a cutter in the costume department of the city's famous theatre. By 1967 she was principal costume designer for the fledgling Shaw Theatre Festival. He work became acclaimed across the country. From 1975-1995 she was a costume designer for CBC- TV. At the end of the 1980's, not knowing how to convince her to retire, the CBC challenged her with a new show. "The Kids in the Hall. Her work was a success and there was even a new character named after her! Her talents were timeless. Dorothy is a Member of the Order of Canada. She has also been recognized (2020)

Dorothy Grant Bo 1955, Hydaburg, Alaska, U.S.A. As a fashion designer, Dorothy made the decision to attempt to combine high fashion with elements of her own traditional Haida native culture. The result is a new style that was once described as 'wearable art" and since the 1980's her fashion business has bee a leader in the Aboriginal fashion industry. Her works and designs are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, were featured at the world EXPO 86 in Vancouver and have been successful in the international fashion scene. Dorothy is a Member of the Order of Canada. She has also been recognized the Best Professional Design Award, The B C Achievement Award for Individual Lifetime Achievement Award in Business, the Prestigious Award for the Arts from the Royal Canadian Academy and the National Aboriginal Achievement Business Award. (2022)

Evelyn 'Lynne' Beatrice Blyth Marvin Tyrrell née Marvin. Born March 2, 1920, London, England. Died May 25, 2013, Toronto, Ontario. Lynne began her working career as a stenographer during World War ll (1939-1945). Around 1944 she married Ron Tyrrell and the couple settled in Brighton, England runing guest house and a clothing consignment ship. In 1947 the family moved to Jamaica to run an hotel. By 1950 they were in Toronto where their fourth child was born. Lynn apprenticed with Toronto couturier Rodolphe Liska. Opening her own shop called The Baroness she sketched her own designs. The shop was eventually located on Scollard St. in the hippie Yorkville area. The Baroness dressed brides, wedding parties and Miss Canada contestants. Trans Canada Airlines asked her to design their uniforms. The shop closed in the 1980's. (2022)

Illustrators           Return to categories

Ginette Anfousse Born 1944, Montreal, Quebec. She studied art at the L'Ecole de beaux arts in Montreal. As an illustrator of children's books she is perhaps best known for her character JOJO (JIJI en française) and her lovable toy aardvark, Pichou. These delightful characters first appeared in the mid 1970's. A friend sent her first two books to a publisher. The Mon Ami Pichou is a series of illustrated stories for young children published in both English and French. She was one of the first picture book artists in Quebec to receive national recognition. In 1978 she earned the Canada Council Children's Literature award and again in 1982. In 1987 she was awarded Le Prix Fleury Mesplet for the best children's author of the decade. Her works have also won the 1989 Mr. Christie's Book Award. (2020)

Carol Biberstein Evan as a youth she enjoyed drawing. She followed her passions and studied art fundamentals and illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. She enjoys working from life, photos and her imagination. While she prefers watercolours as a medium she also works in pen & ink, pastel and acrylics. From 1998 to 1996 she taught English as Second language to adult immigrants . She has done educational book illustrations for many large publishers including Scholastic Press and Oxford, Harcourt Brace, Nelson and Addison Wesley. She has held an annual solo Christmas show at the For Corners Branch of the Brampton Public Library since 1999. In 2001 she wrote and illustrated her first picture book Great Grandma's Rocking Chair, which earned the City of Brampton Arts Acclaim Award. (2022)

Ann Blades Born 1947, Vancouver, British Columbia. She studied for her teaching certificate at the University of British Columbia in 1967 and taught in northern regions of British Columbia. It was during this time that she began to write and illustrate stories for her students. There were very few stories written about children of northern regions of Canada and she would use some of her students as models for the characters in her books. In 1972 she wrote, illustrated and published Mary of Mile 18 which won the Children's Book of the Year Award from the Canadian Library Association. In 1974 she returned to school and became a registered nurse, never dreaming that her talent as an author and illustrator would be anything more than a hobby. In 1978 she won the Canadian Council Children's Literature award and it also won in 1979 the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award. In 1986 By the sea : an alphabet book (Toronto, 1985) won the Elizabeth Mrazlik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award. Now an established author and illustrator she could do her work full time. She continues to write and illustrate her own works and has illustrated over a dozen books by other Canadian authors. (2020)

Brenda Clark Born February 10, 1955, Toronto, Ontario. She studied the art of illustration at Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario and has perused a successful career as an illustrator of books and magazines. Her works have been published by Ginn & Co., Macmillan, Gage, Prentice-Hall, Hold Rinehart and other well established publishers. Her first published illustrations in a book were for school readers and textbooks. While she has used various medium such as pencil crayons and chalks she finds that watercolours reproduce best in publishing. She has illustrated modern children's classics such as Franklin the Turtle in his various adventures and in his own comic strip. Her books are read to children around the world even in China and Australia. (2020)

Heather Collins Born July 22, 1946, Montreal, Quebec. Heather studied at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto. She has been drawing since she was very young. She has illustrated over forty children’s books over the past twenty years. She is the recipient of the 1995 Information Book Award and the 1995 Ruth Schwartz Children’s Book Award (Picture Book Category) for A Pioneer Story: The Daily Life of a Canadian Family in 1840. Heather Collins lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Maryann Kovalski
Born June 4, 1951, New York City, U.S.A. After studying art in New York she moved to Canada in the 1970’s. She applied her profession by working for agencies, magazines, and newspapers before she began illustrating books. She moved to Montreal as a young woman and it was here she met her future husband and the couple moved to Toronto after their marriage. She writes and illustrates her own books as well as illustrating books of other authors, such as Margaret Atwood. She published her own book in 1985. She is a member of the Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and performers and the Society of Illustrators. She has earned the Sydney Taylor Children's Book Award. Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia online (accessed November 2003). (2020)

Susan Ross SEE - Painters

Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber SEE - Painters ...she was perhaps the 1st Canadian woman illustrator

Christine Tripp Christine has always enjoyed drawing even when she was a young girl. Christine is dyslexic, which means that when she reads numbers and letters appear all jumbled. Drawing was a much better way to enjoy life. She lives in Ottawa with her husband and the couple have three adult daughter. She also admits to being owned by a scruffy dog, some cats and a pond full of goldfish! She is self taught n her art and is proud of her successful career to date. She illustrated her first book in 1985. In 2005 her illustrations in the book Penelope and the Humongous Burp helped the book to win the Gold in the Mom’s Choice Award. Her works have appeared in publications of over 30 different publishers and organizations throughout North America. Source: Friend of the fiend 6: Christina Tripp in The Cartoon Fiend. Online (accessed June 2008). (2020)

Interior Designers Return to categories

Madeleine Arbour Born March 3, 1923, Granby, Quebec. Madeleine worked as a journalist in television and also as a set and costume designer for television and theatre. She has taught at the Institute of Applied Arts, Montreal, Quebec and College du Vieux-Montreal. In 1965 she maintained her own interior design company and worked designing interiors for such companies as Via Rail, Air Canada and the Governor General of Canada. In 1984 her work was recognized by the Council nationale du design. In 1986 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. In 1998 her works received the Prix Condorcet. In 1999 she became a Chevalier in the National Order of Quebec. In 2001 she was named to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. (2022)

Joan Mary Harland SEE - Architects

Miscellaneous Return to categories

Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq 3611

Inuit Textile Artist Born 1916, Northwest Territories. Died 2003, Baker Lake, Nunavut. Elizabeth lived a traditional Inuit lifestyle with her family until they moved to Baker Lake, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) in the 1950's. While in Baker Lake she would explore stitching as a method for creating figures in fabrics. She also expanded her works to include landscapes, and animals. She was soon showing her works at art institutions across the country. The Post Office in Wakefield, Ontario commissioned a work in 1976. Her last work was completed in 2000 when she was in her 80's. Her works are maintained in the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank. (2021)

Erica Luisa Deichmann- Gregg

Potter née Matthieson. Born July 23, 1913, Denmark, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Died May 21, 2007, Hampton, New Brunswick. Erica's family returned to the country of Denmark and she grew up there. In the late 1920's the family was on the move again and settled in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1932 she married Kjeld Deichmann in Saint John, New Brunswick and the couple settled on a near by farm. The couple traveled in Europe where he studied pottery and she studied weaving. Back in New Brunswick in the 1930's they created Deichmann Pottery, Canada's 1st studio pottery. Erica would invent and experiment with glazes for their pottery and made hand modeled fanciful miniature animal forms. The couple raised three children. After his death in 1956 Eric closed their studio in Sussex, New Brunswick, and stopped making pottery. In 1964 Erica married a diplomat, Milton Fowler Gregg. In 1987 she became a Member of the Order of Canada. Erica was a consummate volunteer working to preserve the famous covered bridges of New Brunswick and the conservation of natural areas in her province. (2022)

Marcelle Ferron Born January 20, 1924 Louiseville, Quebec. Died November 19, 2001. A member of a group of artists known as les Automatistes she has worked in medium such as stained glass. She is primarily known for her dynamic paintings. She uses vibrant colours and fluid forms to cover her canvases.

Native Crafts        Return to categories

Melanie Blondeau   3705 Born April 9, 1866, Little Saskatchewan. Died 1932?, Saskatchewan. After the death of Melanie's father, the family resettled near the Qu'Appelle mission on Lake Katepwa. Melanie would help support her mother and her aunt by selling items she had decorated with beadwork, quillwork, and Embroidery. In 1913 her work gained the attention of the Canadian Handcraft Guild. The Guild were responsible to have Melanie hired by the Department of Indian Affairs to teach at a residential School for Aboriginal children. The Qu'Appelle school was the only such school in Canada to employ a full-time craft instructor. She worked at the school from 1914 through 1931 for $20.00 a month. Her designs were recognized as showing the result of Métis influence. She would teach hundreds of girls helping to preserve the traditional arts of First Nation beadwork. Source: Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan online (accessed 2022)

Marie Alfreda 'Freda' Diesing

Indigenous Artist
Born February 6, 1925, Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Died April 12, 2002, Terrace, British Columbia. Freda's Haida name was Skil Kew Wet which means 'Magical little woman'. She learned her love of Native Arts from her grandmother. She studied at the Vancouver College of Art and the School of Northwest Indian Art. She enjoyed the traditional arts of the Haida women, button blankets and jeweller but it was in the tradition male art world of carving totem poles that she excelled and in which she would leave a lasting legacy. Some of her totem poles erected in Terrace, British Columbia were the first in the area in over 150 years. In March of 2002 the was presented with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Northwest Community College created the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in her honour in Terrace, British Columbia. Source: Herstory: The Canadian Women’s Calendar 2006. Saskatoon: Coteau Books, 2005. (2021)

Mary Christianne Morris

Indigenous artist née Paul. Born 1804? Steweacke, Nova Scotia (?). Died 1886. With an invalid husband an two young adopted children it was up to Mary to provide for her family. She used her knowledge of her native crafts to produce award winning needlework, quillwork, and basketry. Her fine artwork on clothing was sold to leading citizens in Halifax and provided the family to a comfortable farm house in Dartmouth. In 1860 a portrait of her by William Gush was presented as a gift to the Prince of Wales by the city of Halifax. She was a favored model as several portraits by known artists have survived. It is unfortunate that only a few pieces of her own artwork survive today in Maritime Museums. (2021)

Painters                     Return to categories

Barbara Fisken Wilkes Adams            3494 née Wilkes. Born September 11, 1920, Born Montreal , Quebec. Died June 1, 2006, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. In the early 1940's Barbara was known to exhibit her works in Montreal. She married Ernest A. Adams. The couple had one daughter and settled in British Columbia. In 1948 she exhibited her artwork in the annual British Columbia Artists Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. She also exhibited her works in 1949 at the Stanley Park in Pictures exhibition. Source: British Columbia Artists. online (accessed 2021); Obituary, Vancouver Sun 2006. (accessed 2021)

Betty 'Wabinmeguil' Albert-Lincez

Indigenous artist Betty was adopted and raised by French Canadian parents in Northern Ontario. She spent some time on Vancouver Island and learned to be in touch with her spiritually. Eventually she came to find her aboriginal father, Lindy Louttit, and also discovered her Cree heritage. Her father named her Wabinmeguil (White feather) and encouraged her to follow her artistic desires. In 2005 she opened her own Ehkwateh Art Gallery in Cochrane, Ontario. In the 1990’s her works focused on women’s art and as she began to learn more of her heritage she grew into drawing features on her clan mother art works. Her studio prints have found a worldwide audience. In 1998 she published Moon Journal and Dream Log which featured her clan mother art. She also produced, with Emily Faries, works which were aimed at native organizations, school and educational authorities. By 2011 she found herself overworked so she closed her Cochrane gallery and began to focus on original works with nature themes featuring geese and wolves. Her former husband, Lawrence Martin, a former mayor of Cochrane, helps promote her original works. By 2012 she had relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sources: “Cree artist changes focus” in Onotassiniik , Wawatay News vol. 38 no. 26 December 21, 2011; personal knowledge. (2021)

Louise Alexander Born 1880. Died 1946, Vancouver, British Columbia. Louise studied at the Winnipeg School of Art from 1913 to 1917 and was secretary of the Winnipeg Art Students Sketch Club from 1914 to 1916, later serving as vice-president in 1927 and president in 1928.Alexander came to specialize in portraiture, winning first prize in a Sketch Club exhibition in 1920 and exhibiting at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts exhibition in 1924, both with portraits. She solicited and received a number of commissions for portraits of Winnipeg mayors. Sources: Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted (University of Manitoba, 1999) Memorable Manitobans by Gordon Goldsborough. Manitoba Historical Society Online (accessed December 2011) (2021)

Barbara Alice West Allen née Jefferys. Born June 7, 1916. Died January 17, 2014, Edmonton Alberta. Barbara studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. She was mentored by several well known artists of the day including her own father, C. W. Jefferys (1869-1951) the well known Canadian historical illustrator. In fact several of her black and white sketches were used in her father’s publication The Picture Gallery of Canadian History. After her marriage to Orval Allen, the couple settled in Edmonton, Alberta, where they would raise their five children. After the death of her husband in 1982, Barbara began filling her time by painting watercolour landscapes. She would mount eight exhibitions of her works which appear in private and corporate collections. Source: Obituary, The Globe and Mail January 26, 2014. Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa, Ontario. (2020)

Lillian Beatrice Allen Born November 9, 1904, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Died 1985, Victoria, British Columbia. Graduating in arts from the University of Manitoba in 1926, Lillian then enrolled at the Winnipeg School of Art until 1928, where she also taught Saturday morning classes in 1927-28. She also studied in Toronto at the Ontario College of Education. She earned a Masters of Science at Syracuse University, New York, U.S.A. In 1934 she began lecturing at the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics, teaching housing and design, and retiring in 1971. She helped found the Volunteer Committee of the Winnipeg Art Gallery and was awarded “Woman of the Year” by the YWCA in 1980. She retired to Victoria, British Columbia in 1981. Her papers are held at the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections. Sources: Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J .M. Bumsted; Memorable Manitobans Online (accessed December 2011) (2020)

Marie Elmina Anger

Sister Marie de Jésus Born December 24, 1844, Pointe-aux-Trembles (Neuville) Lower Canada (now Quebec). Died November 5, 1901, Quebec City, Quebec. Educated as a teenager with the Sisters of the Good Shepard in Quebec City, Marie entered the order and took vows and became Sister Marie de Jésus July 20, 1860. While she became a good teacher herself she was better known for her talents in painting. She was particularly good as a portrait artist and would, in her lifetime, produce some 50 portraits of religious colleagues of her day. People who would sit for portraits included Elisabeth Bryière, Archbishop Baillagon, Cardinal Tachereau and Vicar General Cazeau. Through her own canvases and her teachings, Sister Marie de Jésus left a rich cultural and religious heritage to Quebec.(2021)

Kay Angliss    3610 Born 1923, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Died 2004. In 1946 Kay graduated from the Vancouver School of Art. and went on to study at the Emma Lake Art School, Saskatchewan, the University of Calgary, Alberta and the Alberta College of Art, where she taught from 1965 through 1980. She also enjoyed teaching art to children at the Allied Arts Centre, Calgary from 1960 through 1974. A Life Member of the Alberta Society of Artists she was the 1994 recipient of the Royal Canadian Academy's Trust Fund. She was married to visual artist George Angliss. In 1989 the couple relocated to live in British Columbia. She is best known for her watercolour paintings and for her fibre art. (2021)

Kateryna Antonovych née Serebriakova. Born October 23, 1887, Kharkiv, Ukraine. Died February 22, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Kateryna studied at the St. Petersburg Medical Academy before completing her studies at the Kiev Academy of Art. She became an internationally known artist who studying in several western European countries. She married art historian Dmytro Antonovych and the family immigrated to Prague in 1923. She worked in Prague at the Museum of Ukrainian National Struggle for Liberation and was also a director of an Ukrainian Orphanage. Joining her daughter in Winnipeg in 1949, she opened an art school in 1954 while she exhibited her own works across Canada. Antonovych was active in Ukrainian women’s and various community organizations. Her papers are at Library and Archives Canada. Source: Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumstead; Memorable Manitobans Online (accessed December 2011) (2021)

Kenojuak Ashevak

Inuit Artist Born October 3, 1927, Ikerrasak Camp, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories. Died January 8, 2013, Cape Dorset, Northwest Territories. Kenojuak was born in an igloo to a traditional life of her peoples. Her grandmother taught her traditional crafts and she could repair sealskins for trade with the Hudson's Bay Company. At 19 she married Johnniebo Ashevak (1923-1972) in an arranged marriage. In 1950 she tested positive with tuberculosis and was sent to hospital in Quebec City for 3 years leaving her baby to be adopted by a neighbouring family. While away from her home she learned to make dolls and do beadwork crafts. In 1960 the family moved to Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Several of her children died from disease including 3 daughters, and four sons. Kenojuak became on of the 1st Inuit woman in Cape Dorset to begin drawing. She also created many carvings from soapstone. In 1963 she was the subject of a documentary film from the National Film Board. The money earned from the film allowed the family to purchase a canoe to help Johnniebo provide for his family by hunting. In 1967 she was inducted as a Member into the Order of Canada and in 1982 was promoted to Companion. After her husband's death she married Etyguyakuua Pee (d 1977) and in 1978 she married Joanassie Igiu. She is best known is famous for the prints made of her work. She preferred birds as subjects of her works. She designed several drawings for Canadian stamps and coins and in 2004 she created the 1st Inuit-designed stained glass window for the John Bell Chapel at Appleby College, Oakville, Ontario. In 2001 she became the 1st Inuit to have a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. She was a fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2008 she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts from the Canada Council of the Arts. In 2017 the $10.00 bank note in honour of Canada's 150th celebration featured Kenojuak Owl's Bouquet. [2020]

Margaret Ruth Bagnall née Burns. Born June 28, 1900, Darnley, Prince Edward Island. Died 1994, Prince Edward Island. Margaret Ruth graduated from Prince of Wales College and became a teacher. January 19, 1920 she married Frank Bagnall and the couple had two daughters. For 26 years he worked for the Island Telephone Company but still found time beyond career and family to participate in her avocation of writing and painting as well as being active in the Women’s Institute. She was awarded a life membership in the Women's Institute in recognition of her contributions to the organization. She wrote short stories and historical events and also wrote plays for the entertainment of the local area. She had dabbled in oils since the 1950’s and in 1973 in celebration of the PEI Centennial she researcher the history and painted 15 paintings of houses and four churches that were build of local PEI stone. Source: Outstanding women of Prince Edward Island Compiled by the Zonta Club of Charlottetown, 1981. (2021)

Joan Balzar       3612 née King. Born November 8, 1928, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died July 16, 2016, North Vancouver, British Columbia. Joan studied art briefly at the Broadway Edison School, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. She would graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in 1958. After graduation she took summers sessions provided by the University of British Columbia before studying in Paris, France, Guatemala, and Mexico. In 1950 she married an engineer, Roman Balzar. While she would marry a second time to Alexander Cotter she retained Balzar as her professional name. She produced exhibitions at the West Vancouver Museum and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia the Seattle Art Museum, Washington, U.S.A. and other Galleries on the west coast of North America. Her works are maintained in private collections and at galleries such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, the West Vancouver Museum, the University of British Columbia, and the Seattle Art Museum. (2021)

Helen Dorothy Beals 3613 Born 1897, Canso, Nova Scotia. Died April 17, 1991, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. In 1919 Helen graduated from Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She went on to study as Simmons College, Boston Massauchetts, U.S.A.. Earning a certificate in Library Science she worked as a librarian at the Episcopal Theological in Cambridge, Massauchetts before taking a position at Acadia University back in Nova Scotia. She became a dounding member of the Maritime Art Association and began working to produce the Maritime Art Magazine. By 1945 she had become Head of the Department of Art at Acadia University , a position her kept until retiring in 1963. She enjoyed painting and would exhibit her works with the Nova Scotia Society of Artists, the Maritime Art Association and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. She also dabbled in pottery and was a member of the Minas Potters Guild. (2021)

Shirley Bear

Indigenous Artist & Poet Born May 16, 1936, Negootgook Reserve, New Brunswick. Shirley attended the College Maillet in Saint-Basile, New Brunswick and followed this with studies in photography and painting in New Hampshire. U.S.A. Her paintings had appeared in exhibitions throughout North America. In 1990 she served as curator for a touring exhibition of art by Aboriginal women, Changers: A Spiritual Renaissance. Catherine Martin made Shirley the subject of her short film for the National Film Board. In 1990 she was featured in the National Film Board film, Minqwon Minqwon by Catherine Martin. In 2002 she received the Excellence in the Arts Awards from the New Brunswick Art Board. In 2011 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. Shirley has authored six books. Some of her painting are part of the collections of the New Brunswick Art Bank. (2021)

Pauline Boutal née LeGoff. Born September 8, 1894, Brittany, France. Died April 30, 1992, Saint Boniface, Manitoba. Pauline's family immigrated to Manitoba in 1907, settling first on Lake Manitoba and later in Winnipeg. Her family members were active workers in stained glass, and she learned to draw in childhood. In 1918 she joined Brigden’s as a fashion artist, and she remained there until 1941, in charge of designs for the Eaton’s catalogue where all items sold were drawn by artists. She joined Le Cercle Molière Theatre with her husband in 1925, and the couple soon became responsible for most of the design work. She replaced her husband as artistic director upon his death in 1941. Her works were exhibited annually from 1932 to 1975 with the Manitoba Society of Artists, in various group shows at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and in four solo exhibitions at the Centre Cultural Franco-Manitoba in in Saint-Boniface. In 1941 she retired from commercial art work to concentrate on her landscape and portrait paintings. She was commissioned to paint the Mayors of Saint Boniface. In 1963 she was awarded a Golden Boy Award, in 1970 from the Manitoba Historical Society she received the Manitoba Centennial Medal. She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1973. She also received the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1992. Sources: Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted (University of Manitoba Press, 1999) ; Memorable Manitobans. Profile by Gordon Goldsborough. (accessed December 2011) (2021)

Henrietta Hancock Britton née Hancock. Born May 20, 1873, Ealing West England. Died July 27, 1963, Toronto, Ontario. She immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1874, where she lived in both Brandon, Manitoba and Toronto, Ontario. She trained in art in Toronto for three years before becoming an apprentice in the private studio of William Cruickshank. She taught art at the Bishop Strachan School and Moulton College in Toronto. In 1901 she studied painting in Europe for three months. In 1906 she came to Brandon, Manitoba, and taught at Brandon College as Director of Art, where she remained until 1911. While in Brandon she founded the Brandon Art Club. In 1911 she went for another year of study in England, and upon her return she decided to give up teaching art and devote her time to painting. While in England she married artist Harry Britton. After settling in Cornwall, England for a number of years the couple returned to Canada, moving to Toronto in 1914. Her commissions include a mural at the Ossington Avenue Church and one at Scott Mission, both in Toronto. Britton exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1905-1946 and the Art Association of Montreal in 1945 and 1946. Her works are owned by several institutions including the National Gallery of Canada. Source: Memorable Manitobans . online. (accessed December 2011); Canadian Women Artists History Initiative. Online (accessed December 2011) (2021)

Mary Annora Brown Born 1899, Red River, Alberta. Died 1987, Deep Cove, British Columbia. Annora Brown attended the Ontario College of Art between 1925 through 1929.After leaving the College of Art Annora taught at Mount Royal College in Calgary for two years before returning to her home in Fort Macleod, Alberta. In the 1930's she painted water colour and oil landscapes of her beloved Alberta. During the Great Depression she painted 'portraits' of flowers' that she sold for $1.00. Annora wanted to study, identify, and preserve the memory of as much culture and flora as she could. She helped introduce art into local schools and from 1945 through 1950 she taught at the Banff School of Fine Art in Alberta. In 1954 she published the book, Old Man's Garden, which included written sketches of aboriginal culture along with works of the local flora. The book was republished again in 1970.She was one of the 1st people to capture lifestyle and customs of the Blackfoot. In 1958, for two years, she was Commissioned by the Glenbow Museum to paint 200 of the most rare flowers particular to the Fort Macleod area. Annora actually completed 500 paintings an average of three paintings a week. In 1965 she relocated to live in British Columbia. In 1981 she published her autobiography, Sketches From Life. She was the 1st woman to be a member of the Alberta Artist Society. Annora is also featured in the book: By a Lady: Celebrating Three Centuries of Art by Canadian Women, 1992. (2020)

Rebecca Ann Burke Born October 25, 1946. In 1972 After earning a Bachelor degree in English Literature from the University of Guam, Agana, Guam in 1969 Rebecca earned a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University, U.S.A. This artist has shown her works in exhibitions in the Canadian Maritimes, Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia and the United States. In 2010 she became a professor emeritus in fine arts at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick where she taught painting, drawing and contemporary art from 1980 through 2009.(2019)

Thyrza Young Burkitt   3566 née Holmes. Born 1884, England. Died 1954, Lethbridge? Alberta. As a young girl she immigrated with her family to Cardston, Alberta. Her father worked as a Justice of the Peace with the Blackfoot Confederacy. Thyrza soon learned the Blackfoot language and culture on the Blood Reserve. Laer she would complie a Blackfoot dictionary. She enjoyed painting and at the beginning she painted on Pait can lits. Her paintings focused on Aboriginal themes and her work An Indian Encampment is now retained in the National Gallery in Ottawa. She was know for her painting of the North West Mounted Police Fort Whoop-up. Thyrza also was well known as a collector   of artefacts and Aboriginal Crafts. She was a founding member of the Lethbridge Sketch Club and the Lethbridge Writers Club. She also penned several plays. She was a member of the Canadian Women's Press Club and the Canadian Author's Association. The city of Lethbridge named a street in her honour. Source: Legacy of Lethbridge Women. Lethbridge Historical Association, 2005. (2021)

Ghitta Calserman-Roth Born March 2, 1923, Montreal, Quebec. Died November 25, 2005, Montreal, Quebec. Ghitta attended the Parsons School of Design, New York, U.S.A. from 1939-1943. Returning to Montreal in 1947 she opened the Montreal Artists School. She served as school principal with the school accommodating many returned war veterans until it was sold in 1952. At the beginning of the 1960's she studied at the Ecole des beaux arts, Montreal. Here she mixed her appreciation of art she had seen during trips to Mexico where she studied murals. A very talented artist she is considered an outstanding example of creativity of women artists that have characterized a century of art in Montreal. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. She was part of the Jewish Painters of Montreal which have left a legacy depicting expressionistic images of social realism of the 1930's and 1940's. She received the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967 and in 1975 she earned the Purchase Prize and Best Graphic Image Award from the Ontario Society of Artists. In 2000 she became the 1st artist to win the Governor General's Award. (2021)

Florence Carlyle Born 1864, Galt, Canada West (now Ontario) Died 1923, Crowborough Sussex, England. As a young student she studied in Paris, France. In 1983 she exhibited her works in Paris and at the Chicago World’s Fair. Back in Canada by 1896 she taught at the Toronto Girl’s School Havergal College. in 1897 became the first woman to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1898 she had established studios in London, Ontario and Woodstock, Ontario. She was well known for her landscapes, domestic interior and her portraiture. In 1899 she relocated to New York City, New York, U.S.A. where she opened a successful studio. During World War l she volunteered for hospital work in England and sold some of her paintings to aid the Red Cross Society. She continued to exhibit her works at notable centres including the Royal Academy, the Royal Academy of Canada, the Canadian National Exhibition and the Pan Am Exhibition. In 1912 she settled in England after having travelled throughout Europe. Some of her works are owned by the National Gallery of Canada. Source: Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. Online. (accessed July 2014) (2021)

Emily Carr Born December 13, 1871, Victoria, British Columbia. Died March 2,1945, Victoria, British Columbia. Emily is perhaps one of the most famous women painters in Canada. Her works bring alive the beautiful West Coast scenes with vibrant and distinct images. The swirling stokes of her brush created unique images of her paintings. Her canvases hang in many art galleries including the National Gallery in Ottawa. Totem poles of West Coast native peoples were also one of her favourite studies. Did you know she also wrote books? After suffering a couple of heart attacks in the late 1930's Emily lived with her sister Alice to recover. In 1940 and 1942 she suffered a stroke and anther heart attack. She turned her attention to writing with her 1st book Klee Wyck, published in 1941, garnered her the Governor-General's Award for non-fiction. You will find books showing her art and the books she wrote at your local public library. (2021)

Jane Margaret Carson Champaign née Carson. Born 1930, Toronto, Ontario. Died March 28, 2008, Southampton, British Columbia. Jane obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Toronto and continued her studies at the Atelier d'Art sacré in Paris, France. Her works are landscapes in watercolour and acrylic. She has had numerous solo shows and her works grace several private collections. She is also an editor and writer having worked for several Canadian publications including being assistant Editor for the Canadian Composer/Le Compositeur Canadien form 1971-1978. She contributed numerous articles to this and other publications on Canadian composers and musicians. She was a founding member of the Toronto Watercolour Society. She married Jean-Remi Champagne and the couple had one daughter. (2021)

Shirley Cheechoo
Indigenous Actor, Writer, & Visual Artist
SEE - Entertainers - Actors - Stage and Film

Anna Gertrude Lawson 'Nan' Cheney Born June 22, 1897, Windsor, Nova Scotia. Died November 3, 1985, Vancouver, British Columbia. Evan as a child Nan had an interest in art and the form of the human body. Nan studied art at the Boston School of Fine Arts, Massacheutts, U.S.A. and at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec. She also studied medical illustration at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. For a time she worked as a medical artist at McGill University, Montreal. In 1924 she married Dr. Hill Cheney (died 1949). The couple relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1937. Known for her landscape painting she would soon earn her place as a portrait painter and go on to be the first medical artist in British Columbia. A friend of Emily Carr (1871-1945), the famous west coast artist, they were encouraging one another well before Carr’s works became generally accepted as the art treasures that they were. Nan's portrait of Emily Carr is part of the collections of the National Gallery, Ottawa. Sadly Nan stopped painting in 1950. Nan gathered information on Emily until December 1979. Suggested reading: Dear Nan: Letters of Emily Carr by Nan Cheney and Humphrey Toms. Source: The History of Metropolitan Vancouver. (accessed June 19, 2009) ; Obituary, The Vancouver Sun, November 7, 1985, online (accessed 2021)

Paraskeva Avdeyevna Clark née Plistik. Born October 28, 1898, St Petersburg, Russia. Died August 10. 1986, Toronto, Ontario. Paraskeva too art classes at the Petrograd Academy of Fine Arts after the Russian Revolution of 1917 it became the Petrograd Free Studios. This accomplished painter studied in the Soviet Free Studios in Russia from 1917-1921 but left Russia with her son, for Paris, France on the death of her husband, Oreste Allegri Jr. in 1923.In France she worked as a domestic and cared for her son which left little time to produce much art. She moved to Canada with her new Canadian husband Philip Clark in 1931. Settling in the Toronto area she brought some real flair to the Toronto art scene in the 1930's and 1940's.In 1936 she was elected to what is now the Art Gallery of Ontario and held her first solo exhibition at the new Picture Loan Society. That same year she began writing with articles appearing in the Canadian Forum magazine and New Frontier. She produced still life and many landscape paintings as well as some abstracts paintings produced in the 1960's. She also produced self portraits and placed herself and her young sons Ben and Clive in a crowded street scene. Near the end of World War ll she was commissioned by the National Gallery to do works representing the Woman's Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the War she was well known in the art lecture circuit. In 1966 she was elected a full Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1982 an exhibition of her work was set up at Dalhousie University, Halifax and traveled to Ottawa, Toronto, and Victoria, British Columbia. In the early 1980's a documentary film entitled Portrait of the Artist as an Old Lady was produced. (2021)

Emily Coonan Born March 25, 1885, Pointe Saint-Charles, Montreal, Quebec. Died June 23, 1971, Montreal, Quebec. Encouraged as a youth to pursue her artistic talents she took art classes at the Conseil des Arts & Manufactures and in 1905 she studied at the Art Association of Montreal. She was a member of the artist's Beaver Hall Group. Emily is best known for her painting of impressionist figures. She continued to exhibit her art in until 1933. Her works earned accolades and in 1913 she was awarded a traveling bursary from the National Gallery of Canada. With the threat and onslaught of World War l her trip to Europe was delayed until 1920. In Europe she embraced modernism painting and her works became influential in Canada. Her paintings were exhibited in the British Empire Exhibition in London. She continued painting all her life but after 1933 she withdrew from public exhibiting of her works producing works for family and friends. Some of her works are held at the National Gallery of Canada. (2020)

Irma Sophia Coucill Born August 8, 1918. Died November 29, 2015. An artist and editor, Irma began her career by working as artistic editor for various Canadian newspapers including the Globe and Mail, The Telegram and the The Star. She is mainly known for her portraits of Canadian sports figures, prominent business figures, broadcasters and physicians. Her portraits number in the hundreds. In 1958 she completed 58 portraits for the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame which was located in Toronto at that time. She would go on to work for the Hockey Hall, the Business Hall, the Indigenous Hall, the Aviation Hall and the Medical Hall. For Canada's 1967 Centennial she did a book of portraits of the Fathers of Confederation. and are displayed in several Halls of Fame. Her works have been used to produce commemorative coins and are also considered prominent pieces in several museums. She married Walter Jackson Coucill of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the couple had two children. (2019)

Roselyn 'Rody' Margaret Courtice née Kenny. Born 1891, Renfrew County, Ontario. Died 1973. Rody married Henry Lloyd Hammond, a lieutenant in the Royal Air Force who was killed in action in 1918. 1920-1924 she was one of the 1st women to attend the Ontario College of Art, Toronto on scholarship, where she studied under the Arthur Lismer (1895-1969). The next year she worked in the library at the college. She would go on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. in 1927 and then continued studies in New York, U.S.A., London , England and Paris France. She was an assistant instructor at the Port Hope Summer School and taught at the Doon School of Art. In 1950 she took summer studies at the Provincetown, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Her 1st husband, Henry Lloyd Hammond, was killed in action on August 4, 1918. She later married Andrew Roy Courtice. Rody was one of the 1st women in the Canadian modernist movement. When she painted landscapes she was invited to exhibit with the famous Group of Seven painters. In 1933 she became a member of the newly founded Canadian Group of Painters. During a tour of the near north in Ontario in the 1930’s she painted industrial subjects. Her paintings have not only been shown in North America but also in London, England, Brazil, and Paris, France and in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, The Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters of Water Colours and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. In 1945/6 she served as President of the Ontario Branch of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Source: Canadian Women of Note, Canadian Womens Press Club, 1994. (2021)

Julia Tilley Crawford Born 1896, Kingston, New Brunswick. Died 1968, Saint John, New Brunswick. Julia began her working career as a teacher but soon entered the Pratt Institute in Boston, Massauchetts, U.S.A. in 1925 and graduating in 1928. While at the Institute show would win honours for her design. She returned to Saint John, New Brunswick to teach at the city's vocational school from 1928 through 1944. While she painted in various medium such as oil, gouache, pastels, charcoal, and crayon, perhaps her favourite was water colour. From 1936 through to 1943 she exhibited works in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibitions. From 1944 through 1957 she taught at the Netherwood School of New Brunswick. (2021)

Josephine Crease          3468 Born August 7, 1864, New Westminster, British Columbia. Died December 24, 1947, Victoria, British Columbia. Josephine and her sister Susan took art classes at King's College, London, England from 1889 through 1891. The sisters also took private lessons from artists in London, England, and Canada. . Josephine took sketching trips around Vancouver Island and painted watercolours of local landscapes. She was a founding member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society where she became honorary president in 1939. She was also a member of the Victoria Sketch Club where she served as president in 1903. She exhibited her works as show with the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Some of her works are held in the collection of the Provincial Archives of British Columbia and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. (2021)

Susan Reynolds Crease 3469    Born November 18, 1855, Anton, Cornwall, England. Died July 15, 1947, Victoria, British Columbia. The Crease family immigrated to Victoria, British Columbia in 1860. Susan and her sister Josephine (1864-1947) studied art at King's College, London, England in 1889 through 1891. Both girls would take additional lessons in painting from artists in both London, England and in Canada. Susan was a member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society where she was known to have exhibited some of her watercolour landscapes. A feminist she was also a member of the Local Council of Women from 1884 through 1933. Susan like her mother, Sarah, was a diarist and their writings are known for their vivid portraits of life in Victoria, British Columbia. Some of her works are included in collections at the University of British Columbia Archives, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the British Columbia Archives and The Canadian Women Artist History Initiative Documentation Centre, Quebec. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative. online (accessed 2021)

Marion Margaret Cuming Born June 26, 1936. Marion would do her post graduate studies in teaching but chose to study art in France, Mexico and Italy before returning to Canada. She has used her artistic talents to help emotionally disturbed children and has worked with Canadian street kids. She has worked closely with UNESCO related activities. For her personal artistic expression she enjoys drawing Canadian heritage subjects. (2021)

Kate Livingston Cumming née Taylor. Born 1889, Chatham, Ontario (?). Died 1971, London, Ontario. At the Chatham High School Kate's talents in art were recognized with the Pile Gold Medal for promise in art. In 1910-1911 she attended the Detroit College of Art and here, for the first time she saw miniature paintings. While she would enjoy painting landscapes and gardens it would be her specialization in portraits that is remembered. In 1912 she attended the Ontario College of Art where she learned from such notable artists as Arthur Lismer. Upon graduation the Ontario College of Art appointed her as an associate in the Department of Drawing and Painting. From 1915-1917 her works were shown at the Royal Canadian Academy exhibition. In 1922 here paintings were shown at the Canadian National Exhibition. It was about this time that she married a Methodist Minister, Robert Cumming. There was little time for her artistic pursuits as she settled down to the busy life as a minister’s wife and raising three children. The family moved often, living in numerous small Ontario towns. Kate began painting again to supplement the family income but was unable to maintain a Gallery she had opened in St Catherines, Ontario. Theft and loss of numerous works plagued her career at this time. In 1938 the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada commissioned her to do a portrait of Lady Tweedsmuir, wife of the Governor General. This portrait is on display at Governor General residence. In 1951 and again in 1956 she exhibited at the Annual Western Ontario Exhibition, London, Ontario. In 1953 she had a solo exhibition at the London Public Library and Museum followed several years latter whit shared showings at the McIntosh Gallery. In the 1960’s she was bedridden with poor health and stroke left unable to paint. from which she never recovered. Sources: “Our forgotten artist” by Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen October 5, 2013 ; Correspondence with Tom Spears; Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Online (accessed November 2013) (2021)

Ethel Luella Curry Born June 29, 1902, Haliburton Highlands, Ontario. Died April 27, 2000, Haliburton, Ontario. In 1924 Ethel attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. She took off two years to earn money in order to go back to the Ontario College of Arts to continue her education. Ethel was discouraged by having been repeatedly refuted by the Ontario Society of Artists and other juries. By 1934 she was a instructor of clay modeling at the Northern Vocational School that would become known as N O R V I C. She continued her teaching relationship with the school in between travels retiring from the school June 29, 1965. She invited friends and teachers at the college to come to Haliburton on sketching and painting vacations. Some of those she invited became known as the Group of Seven. Always dressed fashionable she made all her own clothes. In 1986 the Ethel L. Currie Bursary was established at Haliburton Secondary School. In the fall of 1991 a two person art exhibit of Curry and another artist works was shown at the Rails End Gallery in Haliburton, Ontario. Source: Northern Belle: The Life Story of Haliburton's Ethel Curry by Robert Popple, Haliburton; R T P Publications, 2003. (2021)

Gertrude Eleanor Spurr Cutts née Spurr. Born 1858, Yorkshire, England. Died 1941, Port Perry, Ontario. Gertrude studied in England at the Scarborough School of Art and the Lambeth Art Schools as well as in New York, U.S.A.. This accomplished artist moved to Canada in 1890/1891. She opened her own studio in Toronto and served as corresponding secretary for the Toronto Art Students' League. About 1900 she relocated for the summer to Woodstock, New York, U.S.A. for the summer studying at the Art Students' League of New York. In 1909 she married Toronto artist, William Cutts and the couple shared a studio in Toronto. Returing to England in 1909 the couple worked at St. Ives, Cornwall for three years and then returned to Toronto before finally settling in Post Perry, Ontario. She was a member of the Ontario Society of Art and an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. She worked in oils, watercolours and pen and ink painting landscapes, seascapes, costal genre, rural scenes, floral studies and still life. She exhibited works with the Ontario Society of Artists, the Art Association of Montreal, the Canadian National Exhibition, the Royal Canadian Academy as well as with groups in the United States. Her workks have been collected by the National Gallery, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Ontario Government Collection, Queen's Park, Toronto. (2021)

Marian Mildred Dale -Scott née Dale. Born June 26, 1906, Montreal, Quebec. Died November 28, 1993, Montreal, Quebec. Marion enjoyed art as a youth and actually had her 1st show of her works in 1918. Marion studied at the Ecole des beaux arts, Montreal, Quebec and the Slade School of Art, London, England. In 1928 she married lawyer and poet F. R. Scott (1899-1985) and the couple had one son. In the 1930's they were both active in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F). Mainly a painter of landscapes she also painted the people of Montreal in the depression era. Her works showed people up against machines and hard times. Her works were organized geometrically as she experimented with fresh art forms. She taught from 1935-1938 at the Children's Art Centre set up by Dr. Norman Bethune (1822-1939) and joined the Contemporary Arts Society in 1939. Between 1948 and 1977 she held nine solo exhibitions of her work at galleries in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City. A pacifist she campaigned for nuclear disarmament in the 1950's and against the war in Vietnam in the 1960's. In 2000 a biography was published, Marian Dale Scott: Pioneer of Modern Art by Esther Trepanier. (2021).

Elizabeth 'Betty' Mary Gertrude Davidson 3810 née Young. Born 1909, Ottawa, Ontario. Died 2000, Ottawa, Ontario. Betty studied life drawing and sculpture while still at high school. In 1939 Betty Married Richard Lewis but sadly was a widow within three years. To assure financial support Betty took portrait commissions and worked as a secretary with the Canada Department of External Affairs. During the decades of the 1930's and 1940's Betty spent time dancing and acting with the Ottawa Little Theater. She was often photographed by the famous Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002). In 1945 she held her first solo exhibition in the foyer of the Theatre. In 1952 she married architect Arthur Davidson who was also a little theatre actor. She continued her studies at the Ottawa Municipal Art Centre. In the late 1960's she studied at Carleton University, Ottawa. In the 1970's Betty experimented with the creation of cast paper reliefs. In 1974 her work, Paper Roses won a $1,000.00 purchase award from the Ontario Arts Council. She went on to earn the Martha Jackson Gallery Award in New York and earned a purxhase award at the 6th International Miniature Print Competition in 1977. The following year she received the Harold Pitman Prize. (2022)

Jean Bruce Dawson née Anderson. Born August 23,1912, Calgary, Alberta. Died August 4, 1999, Victoria, British Columbia. Jean graduated in 1936 as a nurse but with the great depression of the 1930's she was unable to follow her plans and continue studies to become a doctor. Her marriage to Douglas Dawson would lead to a family of four children and a relationship of some 60 years. When the family lived in Guyana, Africa and Burma she volunteered her nursing expertise. While traveling in the tropics she gained an interest in painting. Jean had actually began studies at the Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary in the 1930's prior to studying to be a nurse and at the age of 74 years she earned her Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She enjoyed her art but seldom showed her work. She was a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and joined a local portrait group and the Victoria Sketch Club. She continued her volunteer efforts by working for Meals on Wheels in her home community until she was 86 years old. (2019)

Kathleen Frances Daly Born May 28, 1889, Nappanee, Ontario. Died August 31, 1994, Toronto, Ontario. As young artist she attended the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art in 1924. She continued her education in Europe at the Academie de la Grande Chaumére in Paris , France and in the United States at the Parsons’ School of Design in New York City. In 1929 she married a fellow artist, George Pepper and the two spent a life of travel and painting together. She is well known for her paintings of Montagnais, the Charlevoix and the Stoney Indians of Alberta. She also painted landscapes. Her paintings may be found in the Legislative Buildings in Edmonton, Alberta, the Banff Public Library, and the London Public Library as well as in major galleries such as the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Lord Beaverbrook Museum in Fredericton and in the Canadian Embassy in Denmark. (2021)

Alma Duncan Born October 2, 1917, Paris, Ontario. Died December 15, 2004,Ottawa, Ontario. Alma studied in Hamilton, Ontario and at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. From 1936-1943 she worked at a Montreal advertising firm. By 1943 she officially documented the lives of war workers and members of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps considered her their unofficial artist. Alma and Audrey McLaren, an Ottawa photographer produced animated films under the name of Dunclaren Productions. One of their first productions, Folksong Fantasy was nominated for a British Film Award. Alma participated in numerous national and international art exhibition. She also sat on juries for the Canadian Film Award. From the 1960’s she devoted her energies mainly to her paintings. She taught art to school children of and on from 1949 through the 1980’s. In the 1970’s she designed two series of postage stamps for Canada Post. Maple in four seasons in 1971 and Floral Aerogramme in 1973. She travelled an honed her craft wherever she went in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, the Caribbean, Costa Rica as well she spent some time in the Canadian Arctic. Her works reside innumerous local, provincial and national galleries including the National Gallery of Canada. Sources: Alma Duncan, Visual Artist by Valerie Knowles; D & E Lake online (accessed August 2011). (2021)

Evelyn 'Eve' Alberta Cleverly Dunn Born October 29, 1900, Fleming, Saskatchewan. Died July 7, 1994, Wawanesa, Manitoba. As a young girl of 14 with her father serving overseas in World War l, Eve began working at the Audit Department of the T. Eaton Department Store, Toronto, in order to help support her family. He boss noticed some of her sketches and gave her additional work hours drawing for the famous Eaton’s catalogue. Encouraged in her art she attended art schools in Mexico and Canada. She married Henry Dunn, a Canadian National Railroad worker and the couple lived at various cities, towns and villages throughout Manitoba. Eve transformed her love of the prairie landscape onto her canvas. Her works were shown throughout Manitoba and Canada. In 1974 she received a Good Citizen Award from the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. Source: Goldsborough, Gordon. ‘Evelyn Alberta Cleverly “Eve” Dunn’ in Memorable Manitobans. Online. (accessed September 2014.) (2021)

Mary Ella Digham Born January 30, 1857, Port Burwell, Ontario. Died September 6,1938, Toronto, Ontario. Mary studied art at the Ontario Western School of Art and Design with subsequent studies in New York and Paris. In addition to exhibiting her work in North America and abroad she was the first Head of the Department of Art at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, founder of the Women's Art Association of Canada and founder of the first International Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. She was the first to bring live nude models into a woman's studio in Canada. She worked tirelessly for women's equal opportunities in the art world. She spearheaded the creation of the "State Diner Service" of the Governor General, a 192 piece china dinnerware hand painted by Canadian women artists and presented to Lady Aberdeen. Nominated by the Women's Association of Canada. Source: Mary Ella Dignam, biography Women's Art Association of Canada - History (accessed July 2011) (2021)

Mary Alexandra Bell Eastlake née Bell. Born 1864, Douglas, Ontario. Died 1951, Ottawa, Ontario . Mary studied art in Montréal, New York, U.S.A., and Paris, France. She returned to Montreal to teach art and married British landscape painter Charles Herbert Eastlake. She exhibited frequently in Canada, London and other places. Her works are signed with both her maiden name and her married name. Her portrait of Dr. Maude Abbott (1869-1940) was the basis for a Canadian postage stamp tribute to Abbott issued in 2000. (2021)

Gathie Falk Born January 31, 1928, Alexander, Manitoba. In 1930 the family moved to southern Manitoba before finally settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. At 16 Gathie left school to work to help her family. She would complete her high school education with correspondence courses. At 19 she and her mover relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia. She taught elementary school until 1965 when she decided to make her career in art. An artist who works with multimedia producing works in ceramics, painting and papier-mâché. She took her subjects from daily life such as a ceramic sculpture of fruit pies. She has has had group and solo exhibitions of her works across North America, France and Japan. Her works are collected by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the National Art Gallery in Ottawa as well as by private collectors. In 2002 she was inducted into the Order of British Columbia. In 2013 she earned the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts. (2021)

Philippa Mary Faulkner née Burrows. Born 1917, Belleville, Ontario. Died February 3, 2001. Philippa studied at the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Art, Advertising & Design, New York City, New York, U.S.A. in 1940. From 1942-1947 she studied at the The Doon School of Fine Art under Carl Shaefer (1903-1995) and Frederick H. Varley (1881-1969) . She worked with acrylic paints, mixed media, multi media, and watercolours. Here works reflected the modernist movement. She held solo shows at the Eaton's Fine Art Gallery in Toronto. She has won international awards. Her work is in many public and private collections. Philippa married Dr. George Faulkner (1908-1955) and the couple had two children. (2021)

Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon SEE - Writers - Authors Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon Chamberlin

Betty Roodish Goodwin Born March 19, 1928, Montreal, Quebec. Died December 1, 2008, Montreal, Quebec. After graduating High school she studied design at Valentine's Commercial School of art, Montreal. By the 1940's she had a career as a painter and printmaker. In the 1960's she studied printmaking at Sir George William University, Montreal. She went on to represent Canada at leading international events. Even after participating in numerous exhibitions and solo shows of her art she became dissatisfied with her own work she destroyed much of her pieces and began in 1968 to limit herself to drawings. Betty received several awards, including the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas in 1986, the Gershon Iskowitz Prize of the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation and the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1995, the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1981, the Harold Town Prize in 1998, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1988. She married a civil engineer Martin Goodwin and the couple had one son. An artist who trained in Canada and Europe, her works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery in Ottawa. In 1996 Goodwin donated 150 of her works to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which has the largest collection of her work. That same year she earned the Harold Town Prize. In 2003, she was honored with the Governor General's Award and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. (2021)

Hortense Crompton Gordon née Mattice. Born November 24, 1886, (some sources report the year as 1887 or 1889) Hamilton, Ontario. Died November 6, 1961, Hamilton, Ontario. As a child Hortense attended Saturday morning art classes at the Hamilton Art School. After the retirement of her father in 1903 she lived with relatives in Chatham, Ontario where she began to study and paint china. Her 1st exhibition of china was on December 14-16, 1908 at a local Chatham hotel. In 1916, after the death of her father she returned to Hamilton and in the fall of 1918 she began work at the Hamilton Technical School as an assistant to John Sloan Gordon (1868-1940) whom she married August 3, 1920. She continued teaching at the school until 1951, the last twenty years as head of the Art Department, succeeding her husband. The husband and wife would travel to Europe in the summers and Hortense began to exclusively paint landscapes. In the 1930’s she began experimenting with abstract painting, becoming one of the 1st abstract artists probably in Canada. From 1941-1945 she studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and she abandoned realism to concentrate on non-objective painting. In 1948 she had garnered national interest in her works and she was named honorary president of the Contemporary Artists of Hamilton. In 1952 she became the oldest member of the group known as Painters Eleven. She was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, the Ontario Society of Artists, The North Shore Arts Association of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the international Federation of Art, Zurich, Germany and the Art Teachers Guild, London, England. She was also one of the founders of The Women’s Art Association of Hamilton. Hortense was inducted into the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction in 1989. She is considered a trail blazer of the popularization of modern art in Canada and is featured in the book; Painters Eleven; The Wild Ones of Canadian Art published in Vancouver by Douglas & McIntyre in 2010. (2021)

Elizabeth Frances Hale née Amherst. Born 1774, England. Died June 18, 1826, Quebec City, Lower Canada (now Quebec). On April 3, 1799 Elizabeth married John Hale in London, England. The couple had four daughters and eight sons. In June 1799 she husband was appointed deputy paymaster general of the British troops stationed in the Canadas. She accompanied her husband and the couple settled in Quebec City. Elizabeth took up painting in watercolours. She enjoyed painting urban and rural landscapes. She left her adopted country with works which focused on interesting structures and natural sites such as waterfalls. One print which has circulated widely depicts York (Toronto) in 1804 just shortly after it had been founded. She left a small sketchbook of various landscapes depicting the surroundings in which she lived including scenes of their seigneury of Sainte Anne de la Pérade where the family spent summers. Some of her drawings are in the collections of the Public Archives of Canada, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Source: D C B Vol. 6. Page 9. (2021)

Mary Riter Hamilton Born February 11, 1873, Teeswater, Ontario. Died 1954, Vancouver, British Columbia. Shortly after Mary's birth her family relocated to Clearwater, Manitoba. At 18 in 1889 she married Charles W. Hamilton and the couple settled in Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ontario. After the death of her husband in 1893 she returned to Manitoba and began painting china. She studied art in Toronto and then in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and France. She returned to Winnipeg in 1906. In 1911 she had a gallery show in Toronto and in 1914 she moved to Victoria, Ontario. Living in British Columbia at the end of World War l in 1918 she was commissioned by the Amputation Club of B.C. to do paintings of French battlefields. From 1919-1922 she painted with whatever materials she could find recording over 300 paintings the destruction of the war. In tribute to the men who served she donated her works to the Public Archives in Ottawa and never sold one of the drawings. In 1988 The War Amps would produce an award-winning documentary film, No Man’s Land, on her experiences. In 1926 she donated 227 works to the Public Archives of Canada. Partially blind she retired to Vancouver, British Columbia where she died in poverty. Source: Susan Merritt, Her Story II: Women from Canada’s Past, 1995. (2021)

Caroline Hayward   3683 née Bartlett. Born 1819? Buckingham, England. Died November 10, 1871?, Montreal, Quebec. Caroline married Captain Alfred Hayward (1810-1866) on August 14, 1839 in her home town in England. In 1843 the family now boasting of a two year old and a newborn baby emigrated to Upper Canada. They settled in southeastern area of Upper Canada in a lavish home they called Ravenscroft. They would raise four children who would survive childhood. She enjoyed painting with watercolours and many of her landscapes where made into lithographs. She would also publish a volume of poetry, The Battles of the Crimea with Other Poems in 1855 under the name of Mrs. Alfred Hayward. . The proceeds from her book were donated to the Patriotic Fund for the Crimean War. In the 1850's the family lived at Rice Lake where she was friend with such pioneers as Catherine Parr Trail (1802-1899). She would also have some of her writings published in the Anglo-American Magazine, Toronto, the Maple Leaf, Toronto and the British Ensign, London, England. (2022)

Efa Prudence Heward Born 1896, Montreal, Quebec. Died March 19, 1947, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.. During World War l she was in England serving as a Red Cross volunteer. She studied art at the Art Association of Montreal and the Académie Colarossi in Paris, France in 1925 and 1926. In 1929 her career got a major boost when her painting, Girl on a Hill, won the top prize in the Governor General Willingdon competition organized by the National Gallery of Canada. Her 1st showing of her words was at the Royal Academy of Arts, Toronto, Ontario. Known for her impressive figure painting she was a member of the Beaver Hall Group. Un 1932 she had her 1st solo exhibition in Montreal, Quebec. She was a co-founder of the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933 and became a member of the Contemporary Arts Society in 1939. She was close friends with the members of the Group of Seven and was invited to exhibit with them. After an automobile accident in 1939 she slowed down until 1945 When she had to give up painting. The National Gallery of Canada is pleased to own four of her oil paintings. In 1996 her biography was written and included as a chapter in Portraits of Life.On July 2, 2010, Canada Post released a commemorative stamp and a souvenir sheet in honour of Heward as part of its Art Canada collection. (2019)

Marjorie Jane Hodgson
née Bothing. Born March 30,1932, Hamilton, Ontario. Died March 7, 2018, Scarborough, Ontario. Marjorie showed an interest in art as a youth and attended the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario. In 1951 she married Joshua Hodgson (1950-    ) and the couple had three children. Her paintings are known and have been shown internationally having been displayed in Japan, Mexico, and England. She enjoyed teaching watercolour art at various private and public colleges. 1974-75 she was Director, Canadian Society of Artists in Water Colour and 1977-78 and also served as Director of the Ontario Society of Artists. Her paintings are part of many private and public collections including the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, England. (2019)

Gunhild Hotte Born May 5, 1945, Flensburg, Schleswig/Holstein, Germany. Gunhild emigrated to Canada in 1957. She settled in Northern Ontario near Cochrane, Ontario and took courses in Visual Arts and Crafts Diploma from Northern College in Timmons, Ontario, in 1984. She earned her Bachelor in Fine arts in 1988 and a Bachelor of Education in 1989 from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. She then attended the University of Windsor in southern Ontario and earned a MFA in 1992. She takes much of inspiration fro nature and the uniqueness of the Northern Canadian landscape. She has participated in numerous art shows and won Best of show the Scarab Club, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. in 1992. Her acrylic and oil works have won Best in Show in 1995 and 2002 at the Northern Impressions and Northern Telephone Exhibitions, Timmins. Her works are included in the Art Bank of Canada, Queens University, Windsor University, Essex Board of Education, Northern Ontario Railway, St. Michael’s Printshop St. John’s , Newfoundland, Northern College and the Timmins Museum National Exhibition Centre to name a few. Gunhild takes an active interest in her home community and is a moving force behind the Cochrane Art Guild and the Northern Ontario Art Group. Source: Gunhild Hotte, Cochrane, Ontario

Yvonne McKague Housser
Born August 4, 1898, Toronto, Ontario. Died January 26, 1996, Toronto, Ontario. She began her studies in art at the Ontario College of Art (OCA) from 1915-1920. In 1921 she took one of what would be several year long trips to continue studies in art. Returning from France she turned to teaching at O C A. She had her first exhibition of her works at the Royal Canadian Academy which was followed in 1924 with an exhibition with the Ontario Society of Artists. After another year in France she was back teaching and from 1928-1931 she exhibited in 3 Group of Seven showings. In 1933 she was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters and the Federation of Canadian Artists. In 1935 she married Frederick Hauser, an author who wrote about the famous Group of Seven painters. In 1949 she retired from the OCA and taught in Kitchener at the Doon School of Fine Arts as well as at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in Toronto. She also continued her trips to continue learning in Cape Cod, Mexico and the West Indies. She received the Baxter Purchase Award at the Ontario Society of Artists. In 1984 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, the McMichael Collection in Kleinberg, Ontario, the University of Toronto and Victoria University, Ontario, the Public Library and Art Museum in London, Ontario, and in many private collections. Sources: Yvonne McKague Hauser Collection. E. J. Pratt Library, University of Victoria Campus, University of Toronto. Online. (accessed 2013);. Yvonne McKague Housser Collections. National Gallery of Canada. Online (accessed 2013) Suggestion submitted by Jeanne Ouellette, Ottawa, Ontario. (2021)

Elisapee Ishulutag

Inuit artist
Born 1925 Kangirterjuak Camp, Northwest Territories. Died December 9, 2018, Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories. As a child Elisapee and her family lived the traditional nomadic life of the Inuit peoples living off the land. She would use the memories of her traditional life in her art work as an adult. Settling in her 40's in Pangnirtung she worked in print and tapestry workshops for over 40 years. Many of her oil stick works show family members in traditional life activities. Her later works reflect concern for suicide crisis of youth today and concerns for effects of climate change on the life in the far north. She is a strong believer that art can help to bridge the generation gap for people of the far north. Her works have long been included in exhibitions across Canada and samples of her works are included in numerous public and private collections. In 2010 she appeared in the documentary film Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change. This was the 1st Inuklitut language film to address global warming. (2021)

Helen Kalvak

Inuit artist
Born 1901, Tahiryuak, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Died May 7, 1984, Holman, Northwest Territories. Helen lived a traditional nomadic life of her peoples. In 1960 her husband, Edward Manayak, died and she and her daughter settled In Holman, Northwest Territories. She worked to establish the Holman Eskimo Co-operative and began to take an interest in art. In 1965 her art works were turned prints and became a popular purchase from the co-op. Her works depicted her people in traditional life and roles. In 1975 she was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts followed in 1978 with induction into the Order of Canada. In 1976 Canada Post used one of her works on a 17 cent postage stamp. The School in Holman is named in her honour; By 1978 she had produced over an estimated 2000 works of arts with prints being sold worldwide. Source: Helen Kalvak, Spiritwriter online (accessed 2008) (2021).

Partial Edith Fanny Kirk Born July 16, 1858, Sheffield, England. Died December 3, 1953, Lethbridge, Alberta. Edith did not get along with her step mother and this allowed the younger woman to follow training as an artist traveling and studying through the United Kingdom and France before she immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1905. Aside from her water colour landscape paintings she also supported herself as nurse’s helper in a gold mining hospital, and a teacher in ranching country. At the age of 60 she relocated to Lethbridge, Alberta. Here she continued her art and joined the Alpine Club and the Traveler’s Aid Society. She taught art classes at the local YMCA for a few dollars a month and continued to sell her art. She was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists and was paramount in the creation of the Lethbridge Sketch Club in 1936. Her biography by Wendy Aitkens is called: Adventure and art: The life of Edith Fanny Kirk. (2021)

Elsie Dorothy Knowles     50 Born April 7,1927. She is an artist who enjoys water colour landscapes as her form of expression. She has been able to have her works shown in Vancouver; Edmonton; London, England; Paris, France, Chicago; Los Angeles and more recently in a 1994 traveling exhibition by the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon.

Elizabeth Annie McGillivray Knowles
née Beach. Born January 8, 1866 Ottawa, Ontario. Died October 4, 1928. A painted of considerable recognition she specialized in nature studies. She was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Art in 1908. Samples of her works are preserved in the National Gallery of Canada and Parkwood Museum, the home of Canadian businessman Sam McLaughlin,(1871-1972), Oshawa.

Wanda Koop Born October 5, 1951 Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to attending university she attended the Lemoine Fitzgerald School of Art. In 1973 she earned her BA from the University of Manitoba. While still a university student in 1972 her works were displayed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery where she would have in 1981 her 1st solo show. In 1998 she founded Art City in Winnipeg to bring together contemporary visual artists and inner city youth. In 2002 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Golden Jubilee Medal. Some of her art combines video, performance and photography. Her paintings have been the subject of countless displays throughout North America. In 2005 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Society of Arts and in 2006 she became a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2007 she was the subject of a Documentary Wanda Koop: In Her Eyes. In 2011 her works appeared in a solo wxhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Karen Gay Kulyk Born July 19, 1920, Toronto, Ontario. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Your University in 1973. After graduation she established and ran Seedlings, a Toronto gallery for emerging artists while continuing her own studio work. In 1975 she joined the Marianne Friedland Gallery and began exhibiting her won works around the world in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Asia, Scandinavia, East and West Europe as well as North and South America. In 1983 she was awarded the Grollo d’Oro for her unique use of colour at the Treviso International Art Competition and the Sheila-Hugh Mackay Foundation Grant in 1997. She has been Artist in residence at universities and museums around the world and was the 1st Canadian invited to exhibit solo at the National Gallery of Thailand. Source: The Canadian Who’s who, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997)

Cathy Lacey
Born December 1956 Spiritwood, Saskatchewan. She originally attended the University of Saskatchewan for the B.A. in 1979. She returned in 2004 to the university where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts “with Great Distinction”. She received the University Medal for Fine Arts and the Judith Poole Award. After dedicating one of her works to a child who was murdered in her home province she has dedicated her energies and talents and works of art to raise monies and awareness of community groups such as Saskatchewan food banks, Community Health Education Programs, Planned Parenthood and internationally Women 4 Women Afghanistan. She also has created art to depict the contributions and support to society of the grandmothers and women from our heritage. Source: Saskatoon Women’s Calendar Collective. Herstory 2007: the Canadian Women’s Calendar (Regina: Couteau Books, 2006) pg. 42

Molly Lamb-Bobak Born February 25, 1920, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died March 2, 2014, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Molly's father was a geologist by profession but he also had a profound interest in the arts and the circle of family friends included many Canadian artists. This family association was no doubt a welcoming atmosphere for a young artist who studied at the Vancouver School of Art. In November 1942 she enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corp. Her talents did not go unnoticed and she became the first woman to be officially designated as a Canadian war artist. During the War in London she met her future husband Bruno Bobak. The couple married had two children. After V E-Day she went to Holland to record the devastation of the war. In 1950, with a grant from the French government she painted her impressions of this beautiful European country. In She would return often to paint in France. At home, in Canada, she was busy at the design department at the Vancouver School of Art, the University of British Columbia and the Art Centre at the University of New Brunswick. She also used her artistic talents to illustrate several books including her own Wild Flowers of Canada. 1995 she and her artist husband Bruno were inducted with the Order of Canada. Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia Online (accessed 2007) (2021)

Anne Langton Born June 24, 1804, Yorkshire Dales, England. Died May 10, 1893, Toronto, Canada. Anne was educated at home as was the habit of wealthy families at the time. As a teen she traveled about Europe as a finale to her education. A reverse in finances found the family living a more modest live in smaller accommodations and with fewer servants. Anne was however able to continue learning sketching and painting which she loved and with which she showed some talent. In 1834, Anne, her parents and an unmarried Aunt moved to the backwoods of Fenelon Falls Upper Canada to support a son, John, who had taken up farming in Canada. Anne wrote letter home to another brother in England and also kept a diary of family activities and living conditions in 1830’s and 1840’s. Family letters home and Anne’s diary entries were published as the book A Gentlewomen in Upper Canada in 1966. Anne’s brother John, as he prospered, became interested in politics and was elected to parliament in the colony. John moved his family with him as the Canadian Capital moved from place to place. Anne continued sketching and drawing and her works have provided historical insight to the Canadian backwoods, early Toronto, Quebec City and Ottawa as the family settled in each town. Her artistic works are located in the National Archives of Canada. A public School in Fenelon Fall, Ontario is named in her honor.

Rita Letendre Born November 1, 1928 Drummondville, Quebec. As a child Rita lived with her maternal grandmother in Saint-Francois-du-lac. In 1935 she moved with her family to Saint-Majorique-de-Grantham. but life was difficult with she and her siblings experiencing prejudices because of their Abenaki First Nations Heritage. She preferred solitude and loved to draw. When the family relocated to Montreal she was required to take care of her siblings while her parents worked. In 1946 she worked at a factory and a restaurant cashier to earn money to leave home to live with her boyfriend. The couple had one son who would be raised by his maternal grandmother. At 19 she enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. By 1951 she was embracing abstract art and exhibited her works with the famed group called Les Automatists. Originally this painter and printmaker was interested in simple shapes but as she matured her work became more austere, with large geometric forms. She is known for large interior and exterior murals. In 2002 she became an Officer of the l'Ordre National du Québec. In 2005 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. In 2010 she won the Governor General's Award and in 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2016 she became a member of the Order of Ontario.

Marion Long Born 1882 Toronto, Ontario. Died August 17, 1970. She studied art at the Ontario College of Art and in New York City. She gained a good reputation as a portrait artist and in 1913 opened her own studio in Toronto. In 1922 she became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy and a fully elected member in 1933. She also became well known for her paintings of Toronto city life. Her works are owned y the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.

Mary Love
Baptized June 25, 1806 Halifax, Nova Scotia. Died January 13, 1866. She was educated in England and continued her studies in art. She began drawing in the 1820’s She married Lieutenant Colonel James Frederick Love July 16, 1825 while he was stationed in New Brunswick. It was after her marriage that her interest in art deepened. In 1826 her works were reproduced by lithographs in the U.S.A. She is considered the first Canadian born artist to have works lithographed. (drawn on stone for printing and reproduction) Her husband was posted to Great Britain and the Mediterranean before returning to settle with his wife in Lower Canada. In 1856 Mary joined her husband in England where he was Knighted for his military career achievements in 1856,and she became Lady Love. Suggested source: The Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press) Vol. lX..

Laura Lyall née Muntz. Born June 18,1860 Radford England. Died December 9,1930. As a child she immigrated to Ontario with her family in 1869 and as a young woman she became a school teacher but soon was studying art in Paris where she was exposed to the impressionist style. She was one of the first Canadian artists to receive recognition abroad and the first woman asked to exhibit with the Canadian Art club. Portraits of children were a special pleasure for her. Since women could not become elected members to the Royal Canadian Academy she became an associate in the academy in 1895 At the age of 55, she gave up her art to raise the family of eleven children of her deceased sister. She returned to painting only at 64.

Sarah Mary Blake Lynch-Staunton née Blake. Born 1864? Galway, Ireland. Died 1933, Pintcher Creek, Alberta. Sara attended St Leonard’s-on-the-Sea, England and later she lived in France with her mother and sisters where she may have obtained addition training in art. In 1890 Sarah married Alfred Hardwick Lynch-Staunton (1860-1932) a member of the Northwest Mounted Police and later a rancher at Deer Horn Ranch, North Fork, Alberta. Sarah had immigrated in 1887 to see her brothers ranch. The couple had 8 children, 3 of whom died early. Sara painted landscapes and small sketches. She decorated her home by painting doors with local outdoor scenes. Her watercolour ‘Deer Horn Ranch’ is part of the Collections of the Glenbow Museum, Alberta. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative, 2007 Concordia University.

Carrie 'Birdie' Holmes MacGillivray 3684 Born April 8, 1871, MacGillivray's Bridge, Ontario. Died May 16, 1949, Toronto, Ontario. Sadly Carrie's mother died when Carrie was born. She was brought up by an indulgent father. She attended the local school prior to going to boarding school in Ottawa. After high school, like many young women of her era she attended finishing school. Carrie travelled abroad with her father and studied voice in Scotland. She was engaged to marry Wynn Williams but her died suddenly oin a hunting trip. After the death of her father in 1912 she relocated to Toronto to work as a clerk-typist at the Ontario Archives. She enjoyed painting and was known for her watercolour painting. She also wrote two novels: The Shadow of Tradition: A Tale of Old Glengarry, published in 1927 and the Prairie Star: A Saga of the Western Plains which remained unpublished. Carrie was also a choir leader and played the organ. Source: E C W W (accessed 2022)

Margaret Kathleen 'Pegi' Nicol MacLeod
née Nicol. Born January 4, 1904 Listowel, Ontario. Died February 12, 1949. A painter she was among the first wave of artists of Canadian modernism. She painted many works of the women’s division of the Armed Forces at the end of World War ll. She left over 1000 works of art in many media including designs for hooked rugs.

Doris Jean McCarthy Born July 7, 1910, Calgary, Alberta. Died November 25, 2010 Toronto, Ontario. Her talent was noted early and she began taking art classes at 15. In 1926 noted artist Arthur Lismer gave her a scholarship to the Ontario Collage of Art where she was coached by several members of the famous Canadian painters known as the Group of Seven. She began teaching and providing encouragement to others. She taught high school students of her avocation for 40 years retiring only in 1972. She shared her joie de vivre though her paintings of landscapes she viewed around the world. She is considered perhaps Canada’s best landscape artist. She was the 1st woman to be president of the Ontario Society of artists. In 1983 she was named Canadian Woman Artist of the year. At the age of 79 she graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in English. She named her home “Fools Paradise” and bequeathed it to the Ontario Heritage Foundation to be sued as a retreat for artists. Her landscapes for which she is best known have been exhibited around the world and some of her works are owned by the National Gallery of Canada. In 2004 the Doris McCarthy Gallery opened on the Scarborough Campus of the University of Toronto. She authored a three volume set of her autobiography. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, recipient of the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. Source: Herstory: The Canadian Women's calendar. 2008 (Saskatoon Women's Calendar Collective / Coteau Books, 2007) : Obituary, The Toronto Star, November 2010 Online accessed November 2013

Edith Hester McDonald-Brown

Black Artist née McDonald. Born December 17, 1886, Africville, Nova Scotia. Died December 17, 1954. Edith is considered the first documented Black female painter in Canadian art history. She was creating art by the time she was 12 years old. Edith worked in her mother's general store. After have lived in Montreal, Quebec for a short period of time, perhaps to receive an education, she married William Henry Brown Jr. She created four surviving paintings, three landscapes and one still life which are thought to be the first oil paintings by a Black Canadian women. Her work, Sweet peas, dated 1911, was a still life of a vase of flowers were displayed for the first time in 1998 in the exhibition In This Place: The Black Art in Nova Scotia. Sadly this art piece has since gone missing.

Isabel Grace McLaughlin
Born October 10, 1903 Oshawa, Ontario. Died November 26, 2002 Toronto, Ontario. Isabel was one of five daughters born to the family of Robert Samuel McLaughlin (1871-1972). Her father was the founder of McLaughlin Motor Car Company which became General Motors Canada. Isabel studied art at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario graduating in 1930. In her last years at the OCA she also took time to study in Paris, France and Vienna, Austria. An important early modernist painter in Canada she used bright colours in her highly subjective paintings. In 1933 she was a founding member of the of the Canadian Group of Painters where she served as the 1st woman president in 1939. She donated many of her works as well as works from other artists to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. In 1993 she was inducted into the Order of Ontario and in 1997 the Order of Canada. Her papers are in the Queen's University Archives, Kingston, Ontario. (2019)

Helen Galloway McNicoll Born December 14, 1879, Toronto, Ontario. Died June 27, 1915, Swanage, England. Helen suffered scarlet fever as a child and as a result became deaf. Helen was also suffer from diabetes. The family relocated to Montreal when her father obtained work there. She studied art at the Art Association of Montreal. From 1904 for two years she studied at the Slade School of Fine art in London, England and then set up a studio in France. In 1908 she earned the Jessie Dow Prize for painting from the Art Association of Montreal. Back in England she share a studio with a artist friend where she was elected to the Royal Society of Art in 1913. The following year she was elected as an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Showings of her work were held posthumously in 1922 and 1925 by the Art Association of Montreal. In 1970 the Granite Club of Toronto arranged an exhibition and in 1974 the Jerrold Morris Gallery in Toronto . held an exhibition of her works. Her works are to be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Art Galleries of Nora Scotia and Ontario as well as the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. (2019)

Marie Madeleine
Maufils dit de St Louis.
Baptized December 21, 1671. She was one of the religious Hospitallers at the Hôtel-Dieu. She was known as Mother Maufils. She was a talented painter and artist who is credited with some of the artistic panels in the Chapel of the Hôpital Générale in Quebec city.

Agnes Martin Born 1912 Macklin, Saskatchewan. Died December 16, 2004. Agnes grew up in Vancouver, then moved to Bellingham, Washington, in 1932. She earned a BA in 1942 and an MA in 1952 from the Teachers College at Columbia University, New York. She relocated to Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan, and had her first one-person exhibition in 1958 at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York City. Surveys of her work have been presented at venues including the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1973), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1991), the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1992), and the Menil Collection, Houston (2002). Martin continued to live and work in Taos, New Mexico, until her death. Some critics have labeled her one of the world's foremost abstract painters.

Mimi Matte Birth name Madeleine R Packham. Born September 10, 1929, Regina, Saskatchewan. Mimi married in 1952 a little less than a year after she had received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from McGill University in Montreal. James and Mimi would have two daughters. A commercial artist she began exhibiting her works only in 1974. She has had group and solo showing across North America. Several renowned collections house her works including : Imperial Oil: Shell Oil: Marcil Trust: and Westin Hotels. The incentive for her works comes from anywhere, even an over heard snippet of conversations. She applies bright colours and provides a distinctive presentation of her ideas and subjects. Source: Canadian who’s who (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005)

Maria Frances Ann Morris Miller
née Morris. Born February 12, 1813, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Died October 28, 1875, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Maria received training in art from an American artist and and English artist who were providing art lessons in Halifax. A woman of talent and determination she used her artistic abilities to open schools in Halifax to teach the young refined women the fine art of drawing. Combining her interest in flora and fauna with her drawing she published 146 paintings of Nova Scotia wildflowers in 1840. Wild Flowers of North America was published in 1867. Her works were widely accepted with and exposition at the 1867 Paris exhibition. She is considered the f1t professional woman artist in Nova Scotia. July 7, 1840 she married Garret Trafalgar Nelson Miller and the couple had several children. In 1856 she and her sister Catherine published a volume of poetry. She was able to have financial earnings to support herself and to gain recognition of her work at a time when women were just beginning to come forward as accomplished individuals and not just daughters and wives!! (2019)
D C B Vol. X Online : Marie Morris Miller. National Gallery of Canada. Online (Accessed January 2014)

Kathleen Jean Munn
Born 1887, Toronto, Ontario. Died October 1974. Her mother managed the family of six and the family jewelry business after the death of her husband in 1890. Her grandmother was an accomplished amateur painter and encouraged young Kathleen’s drawing and she was sent to study at the Westbourne School with F. McGillivray Knowles from 1904 to 1907 where Kathleen thrived. In 1909 she began to exhibit Barbizon-inspired landscapes at the Ontario Society of Art (OSA) and the Canadian National Exhibition (C N E). In 1912 she was in New York City to study at eh Art Students League and in 1914 she was awarded first prize at the Summer School in Woodstock New York, U.S.A. She toured Britain and the major art centres of continental Europe with her sister in 1920. In the 1920’s she established her studio in the family home in Toronto and she began to work on a series of paintings that explored Christian themes. She devoted the 1930’s to the subject of the Passion. She exhibited a number of these drawings at the Malloney Galleries in Toronto in 1935. Discouraged by the lack of response to her works and facing the death of a brother and living with a disabled sister she stopped producing her work about 1939. Most of her work remained in family hands. The Art Gallery of Toronto exhibited her Passion drawings in several group shows in the 1940’s and the Willistead Art Gallery in Windsor included her Ascension in a 1954 show of drawings.

Agnes Nanogak Born November 12, 1925, Baillie Island Northwest Territories. (married name Agnes Nanogak Goose). Died May 5, 2001, Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories. In 1943 Nanogak married Wallace Goose and the couple had seven children. This Inuit artist is known for her energetic and colourful representations of native myths and legends. Her early drawings were done using graphite pencils but she soon opted to use colourful felt-tip pens. Many of her works on themes of Inuit life were later produced as prints. Nanogak contributed to every print collection by the Homan artists' co-operative beginning in 1967. In 1985 she was the 1st Inuit artist to receive an honorary degree from a university in Canada. In 2002 the Winnipeg Art Gallery held a solo exhibition of her works. You can see her work in the book she illustrated Tales From the Igloo, a book of Inuit stories., published in 1972 and More Tales From the Igloo published in 1986. Her artwork is found in collections of some 15 institutions across Canada and the United States.

Lilias Torrance Newton Born 1896, Lachine, Quebec. Died 1980, Cowansville, Quebec. At the age of 12 Lilias began taking lessons at the Art Association of Montreal. During World War l she went to England with her mother and became a Red Cross nurse. She also studied art in London. Returning to Canada she shared an art studio with colleagues who would become known as the Beaver Hall Group. In 1921 she married Frederick Newton who would later abandon her. In 1923 she was elected as the youngest member to the Royal Canadian Academy and the same year she received honorable mention at an art show in Paris, France. She would continue her work after her divorce in order to support herself and her son. In 1934 her nude painting caused uproar at the Art Gallery in Toronto. During WW ll she was hired to paint portraits of military officers and illustrated recruiting posters. Portraits became her preferred genre and in 1957 she was the 1st Canadian to produce an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth and H.R.H. Prince Philip for Government House in Ottawa. She would paint until 1975 when she suffered from a serious fall. Source: Herstory 2008: A Canadian Woman’s Calendar (Coteau Books, 2007) ; National Gallery of Canada Online (Accessed February 2014)

Maxine Noel

Indigenous Artist Born 1946, Birdtail Reserve, Manitoba. Maxine's Sioux name is Loyan Mani meaning to 'walk beyond'. Maxine is a survivor of an Indian residential school. Maxine began her working career in 1964 as a legal secretary in Edmonton, Alberta and Toronto, Ontario. For a time she ran the Ininew Native Friendship Centre in Cochrane, Ontario which been established as a safe place for Aboriginal peoples but sadly had become more of a crisis intervention centre. This experience moved Maxine on a path towards community engagement and healing.
She soon took a position with the Ontario Native Council On Justice working on the needs of Aboriginal inmates in and out of Ontario prisons and jails in Guelph, Ontario. She had always enjoyed drawing as a youth and she developed and refined her skills during these early working years. In 1979 she became a full-time artist. March 1980 she had her 1st solo exhibition in Toronto and has since had showings across the country. She works with various techniques such as serigraphy, a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. She also works with etching, lithography and cast paper. he is is also involved with Native Earth Performing Arts, the Canadian Native Arts Foundation and the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts. She has lectured at various institutions of higher learning including the Ontario College of Art, the Saskatchewan School of Fine Arts and the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. In 2019 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. (2019)

Daphne Odjig

Indigenous Artist Born September 11, 1919, Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Died October 1, 2016, Kelowna, British Columbia. This artist draws on her Potawatomi native heritage for her inner artistic strength and credits her grandfather Jonas for nurturing her spirit as a child. Daphne moved to Ottawa for formal art training and continued her education in Sweden. During World War II, she relocated to Toronto for work and there she met her first husband, Paul Somerville (d 1962) . Paul was moved to the West Coast for military duty and this is where Daphne raised their two sons. It was only once her sons where in school that Daphne found time to devote to painting. In the 1960’s her sister encouraged her to paint scenes from Manitoulin Island mythology and Daphne produced several children’s books based on Ojibwa culture. IN 1962 she married Chester Beavon and the couple settled in northern Manitoba. In 1972 exhibited her works in Winnipeg, the 1st time that Native artists were featured in an Art Gallery. Her own works have been exhibited in Europe, Israel and Japan. She painted a large mural at the national Arts Center in Ottawa. In 1973 she was a founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists Association. In 1987 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada and two years later she was elected to the Royal Academy of Art. In 1992 she received the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation. In 1998 she won a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. She has also published her memoirs “Paintbrush in My Hand” (1993) One of her paintings was used for Canada's Christmas stamp in 2002. In 2007 she received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and was made a Member of the Order of British Columbia. In February 2011 Canada Post again chose some of her art works to appear on Canadian Stamps. Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia Online. Accessed 2002) Updated 2015. Daphne Odjig: The Art History Archive. Online (Accessed October 2015)

Marie 'Mimi' Parent Born September 8, 1924, Montreal, Quebec. June 14, 2005, Switzerland. When Mimi was at art school in Montreal she was considered undisciplined and was expelled in 1947. That same year she held her first solo exhibition in Montreal. In 1948 she married fellow art student Jean Benoit and moved permanently to Paris. She has participated in many European and North American exhibitions of her surrealist work both with colleagues and solo exhibits. She is considered on the the most original Canadian artists in the 20th Century.

Myfanwy Pavelic
Portrait artist
née Spencer. Born April 27,1916, Victoria British Columbia. Died May 7, 2007. She was introduced to painting by Emily Carr on Vancouver Island. She was brought up in a well to do family and the family home was eventually donated to the City of Victoria to become an art gallery. She studied for a few months with a Yugoslav artist but other than these brief instructions she is basically self taught as an artist. During World Was ll she donated proceeds from a solo exhibition to the Red Cross. She married and had one daughter. In 1997 she was a founding member of the Canadian Portrait Academy. In 1990 her portrait of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau won the F. H. Varley Medallion for Best Portrait Painting. Her portraits have been displayed and donated to the National Portrait Gallery London, England where she is the 1st known Canadian born artist to be represented in the permanent collections. In 1984 she was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2001 she became a Member of the Order of British Columbia. She was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. (2019)

Pitseolak

Inuit artist Pitseolak Ashoona. Born circa 1904, Nottingham Island, Northwest Territories. Died May 28, 1983. She was brought up in a traditional Inuit lifestyle, traveling from camp to camp with her people. In 1922 she married and with her husband she would have 17 children. Sadly only 6 of her children would live to adulthood. After the death of her husband life became in difficult. A local civil administrator encouraged the widow to carve, sew and draw scenes from her memories of the traditional way of life. Her clothing, with telling scenes, sold and she began to work with pen, and coloured pencils. At her home in Cape Dorset she produced drawings of monsters and spirits of Inuit tales, scenes of early Inuit life and other memories from her heart. These works are now located in galleries and private collections around the world. As well as leaving her own personal works, three of her sons became gifted stone carvers and a daughter, Napadive Poottoogook, a graphic artist. In 1971 she told her story in the book : Pitseolak : Pictures out of my life. The National Film Board of Canada turned the illustrations from the book into an animated film. Pitseolak was a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts and in 1977 she received the Order of Canada. Canada Post issued a stamp in her honour March 8, 1993.

Jane Ash Poitras
Born 1951 Fort Chipewyan. After the death of her mother she was adopted as a orphaned toddler by Marguerite Runck a German-Canadian widow. Her life quickly adapted to a Canadian mainstream way of life. She began studding sciences but soon switched to her primary love of art. She earned Bachelor of Fine arts in print making at the University of Alberta. After the breakup of her marriage she followed up with a BFA at Yale and a MFA at Columbia University in New Your City. As a teen she had begun the reconnection to her Native roots and as an adult artist she found her ancestry a strong influence in her work. Her paintings show a merging of European and North American Native cultures. She is also a well known wordsmith and welcomed public speaker. Her works have been shown across North America and are part of the holdings of such institutions as the Royal Ontario Museum and the National Gallery of Canada. Her works and biography have been published in Cultural memories and imagined futures: The art of Jane Ash Poitras by Pam McCallum (2011). In 2011 she was the co-recipient of the Lieutenants Governor of Alberta award for Distinguished Artists. Her life partner is Clint Buehler. The couple have two sons. Sources: Honor Song: A tribute by Barbara Hagan Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 1996.

Annie Pootoogook

Inuit Artist Born May 11, 1969, Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. Died September 19, 2016. Ottawa, Ontario She began drawing in 1997 with the encouragement of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative. Her pencil works reflect her own personal experiences of everyday life. She has produced images of prefabricated housing and video games and television sets. She has also tackled mental illness, alcoholism and domestic abuse. She has produced works for group shows and solo exhibitions across Canada. In 2006 she won the Sobey Art Award the pre-eminent prize for Canadian artists under 40 years of age. After winning this award she had numerous solo exhibitions and group exhibitions of her work throughout North America. She was accepted into the Artists at Glenfiddich residency program in Scotland. In 2007 she became the 1st Inuit artist invited to participate in the International art exhibition in Kassel, Germany. While drawing provides living wage, Annie also likes to draw because it gives her a lift in life. Source: Herstory; The Canadian Women’s Calendar 2010; Robert Everett-Green and Gloria Galloway, A remarkable life; Annie Pootoogook detailed, colourful work helped lead to a profound shift in what Inuit art should look like. In the Globe and Mail October 2016.

Annie Louisa Prat
Born 1861. Died 1960, Nova Scotia. In 1877 through 1879 she lived with relatives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She earned honorable mention for her watercolour painting in the 1879 Provincial Exhibition. In the 188’s she served as secretary to Charles C.D. Roberts (1860-1943 ), the man who would become known as the Father of Canadian poetry. In 1896 she was painting miniature portraits for friends and she enrolled in the Chicago Art Institute. She moved to New York for a short time to help with her sisters’ book binding business before returning to Nova Scotia by 1900. From 1917-1920 she was Dean of Women at King’s College. In 1926 she lost sight in one eye in an accident and gave up miniature painting but she continued her war with painting wildflowers. These works proved to be an historical record of native plants of the province. Source: Herstory: Canadian Women’s Calendar 2012 ,Coteau Books, 2011.

Mary Frances Pratt née West. Born March 15, 1935, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Died August 14, 2018, St John's Newfoundland. Mary studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University It was while at university she met Christopher Pratt. The couple married September 12, 1957 and relocated to Scotland were their first two children were born. Upon returning to Newfoundland Mary completed her Fine Arts Degree and two more children rounded out the family. This artist is perhaps best described as a photo realist. Her paintings of common household items look so real, you might think that there were a photograph! Many of the subjects of her works are thins found in the kitchen of her home, like the work entitled ”Christmas Turkey” (1980). Her works have been exhibited since 1967 in major Canadian galleries and form part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Rooms, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Museum, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Canada House, London England. Her works have often toured including the 2013-2015 solo exhibition simply entitled Mary Pratt. Mary has served her community by holding positions on the Government Task Force on Education in 1973 Newfoundland, the Federal cultural Policy Review Committee. She chaired the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Corner Brook, Newfoundland Committee to advise the creation of the School of Fine Arts. She has also held position on the Canada Council 1987-1993 and being a member of the Board of Regents of Mount Allison University 1983-1991. In 1996 Mary was inducted a Companion of the Order of Canada. Sadly she and her husband Christopher separated in 2004. In 2007 Canada Post honored Mary with a series of postage stamps. In 2013 she became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. (2022)

Lucy Qinnuayuak Born 1915? Sugluk, Quebec. Died September 10, 1982 Cape Dorset, North West Territories. Lucy began to draw in the 1950’s just when Inuit printmaking was beginning to take shape in Cape Dorset. Lucy is best known for her fanciful Arctic birds. Over 100 of her original works became prints. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia online Accessed 2017.

Hilary Celia Radcliffe Kilbourn Born 1953? Toronto, Ontario. Died February 2, 2006, Toronto, Ontario. Hilary always loved to draw even as a child. After a religious retreat in Scotland she became ill and was hospitalized to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder with which she would struggle for the rest of her life. Eventually she would settle in one of the original older homes on Toronto Island. She often opened her home to others needing a place to live. In 1994 she created an half hour film about life on Toronto Island which was aired on cable TV. On the Toronto Island she applied her art which she often would give away. She enjoyed painting views of the Toronto Island. Her sister felt that one of her best works was a larger-than-life portrait of their father looking like the Toronto rebel leader of 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie King. (2018)

Mary Augusta Hiester Reid née Hiester. Born April 10, 1854, Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Died October 4, 1921, Toronto, Ontario. While studying art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in the USA she met her future husband, Canadian artist George Agnew Reid (1860-1947). There was time to study in Paris before the Reid family settled in Toronto, Ontario. She was an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists, an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (women were not allowed to be elected to the Academy) in 1896. She would become 1st woman to serve on the executive council of the Ontario Society of Artists. Her art legacy includes interiors and murals as well as her landscape paintings. Largely forgotten today, her still life and floral paintings were shining examples of art that was considered acceptable for women of the Victorian era. When she died, the Art Gallery of Toronto launched the largest single retrospective show in its history, in 1922. It was a memoriam featuring her works she became the 1st Canadian woman to have a solo exhibition of her works. In 2000-2001 a successful showing of her works was called Quiet Harmony. (2019)

Sarah Margaret Armor Robertson Born June 16, 1891, Montreal, Quebec. Died December 6, 1948, Montreal, Quebec. From 1909 through 1924 she studied at the Art Association of Montreal. It was during this time that she became part of the Modernist movement in Canada. She joined the Beaver Hall Group of painters in 1922 in time for their 2nd showing. Most of the members of the Hall shared studio space and were rejected by the mainstream galleries. The women of Beaver Hall continued after the main group had disbanded in 1923. In 1924-1925 she was showing her paintings in Great Britain to positive reviews. After her father’s death in 1926 she painted so that she could pay her living with her mother. In 1928 on of her paintings, The Blue Sleigh appeared in a Group of Seven Art Show. (2020)

Amelia Mildred Ross née Peel. Born 1856? Canada West (now Ontario) Died February 29, 1920, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A. Mildred would study art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the U.S.A. prior to studying in Paris France. She enjoyed painting as well as sculpting. She would become the 1st woman in Canada to complete publicly commissioned sculpture works. She married Lawyer and future Ontario Premier George W. Ross on May 8, 1907. She remembered best for her but of Laura Secord, the heroine of the War of 1812 which is part of the monument in Drummond Hill Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Ontario. She is also know for her portrait of Laura Secord which hangs in the Ontario Legislature. There is somewhat of a scandal that surrounded this portrait that was completed in 1905 as a commissioned work for the Ontario Legislature. An X-ray done in the 1970's revealed that under the portrait was another image, the image of her husband, Sir George W. Ross whiskers and all. In 2014 there was a showing of Peel family art in London Ontario and it was discovered that the Laura Secord portrait looked very much like a portrait of Mildred's mother, Margaret Amelia Peel! The Laura Secord portrait languished in storage for many years but was finally hung once again in the Ontario Provincial legislature building in Toronto. (2020)

Susan Ross née Ruttan. Born June 3, 1915, Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) Ontario. Died January 5, 2006. As a child Susan's mother encouraged her daughter to take art lessons. In high school she began studying anatomy. Her uncle, filmmaker Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), became her mentor and paid her fees to attend the Ontario College of Art in Toronto from 1933 to 1938. In her last year she left school to marry lawyer Jim Ross. The couple would have four children. The family settled in Port Arthur and Susan worked to have her art taken seriously. She signed her works as S. A. Ross or SARoss to hide the fact of being a woman. She was active in the Port Arthur Art Club and participated in local art exhibitions. In the early 1950's she taught art at Hillcrest High School. Her use of tissue and glue and mixing layers of watercolour between layers in etchings helped introduce modernism to Canadian art. She painted portraits of friends and neighbours and First Nations peoples. She travelled with author Sheila Burnford (1918-1984) across the Canadian North even to Pond Inlet on Baffin Island in 1970-1971. Susan would return to Baffin Island on following trips into the 1980's. Susan would provide illustrations for some of Sheila's books as well as other Canadian authors. She produced covers of the Canadian magazine The Beaver. Susan stopped painted when she was 85 declaring that she no longer had the urge to point. (2020)                                                                                                                                                                                         Etching of Fisherman in Northwest Territories 1982-83.

Pitalose Saila 3835

Inuit Artist

Born July 11, 1942, * Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Northwest Territories (now Nunavut). Died July 24, 2021, Kinngait, Nunavut. Young Pitalose would spend much of her time away from home in hospitals for treatment of tuberculosis. While in hospital she learned to speak English. When she was able to return home she was raised by her grandmother. She returned to Baffin Island when she was 15. She married sculptor Pauta Saila (1916-7-2009). In the early 1960's she began to draw and participated in the annual engraving collection from 1968. Many of her works depict images of strong, nurturing women or mothers with children. She was able to travel to southern Canada and abroad with her art. In 1971 Canada Post one of her prints called Fisherman's Dream on a series of commemorative postage stamps. She had her first solo exhibition in Hamilton, Ontario in 1974. More exhibitions of her work followed in major North American Centres and Europe. In 1980 her print called Artic Madonna was used for a Unicef greeting card. Her works are included in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine arts, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa. In 2004 she was elected as a member of the Roryal Canadian Academy of Arts. *birth sometimes reported as August 11, 1942.

Anne Douglas Savage Born July 27, 1896, Montreal, Quebec. Died March 25, 1971, Montreal, Quebec. Growing up with summers in the Laurentian mountains Anne learned to lover her surroundings. She studied art at the Art association of Montreal between 1914 and 1918 During World War l. her twin brother was killed. After the war Anne studied design at the Minneapolis School of Art in Minnesota, U.S.A. Returning home to Montreal she began teaching art at Baron Byng High School from 1922 through 1947. She was a pioneer in teaching children’s art. Her own works matured showed a lyrical quality and later in life she was attracted to the abstract form of painting. In 1921 she joined the Beaver Hall Hill Group of painters.. After spending some time at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto with some members of the famous Group of Sever she traveled to Europe and British Columbia. In 1933 she was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters where she served in 1949 and again in 1960 as president. In 1948 she became supervisor of art for the Protestant School Board of Montreal. She encouraged the founding of the High School Art Teaching Association and in 1955 she she inspired the formation of the Child Art Council, now the Quebec Society for Education Through Art. Retiring from full time teaching art in 1953 she taught at the McGill University from 1954-1959. Her archives are stored at Concordia University, Montreal. (2020)

Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber née Morrell. Born May 21, 1834, Woodham, Mortimer, United Kingdom. Died July 3,192,2 Paignton, United Kingdom. Charlotte was trained in art at Mr. Carey's School of Art, London, England. She also studied anatomy to gain a better understanding of the human body. When she was just 21 some of her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy. She also earned a reputation for illustrations she made for various books. In 1875 she married Weymouth Schreiber and became step-mother to three children. The family immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto, Ontario. In 1875 she was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists and the next year, 1876, she became the 1st woman to teach at the Ontario School of art .A painter of the Victorian sentimental era she painted landscapes and figures. In 1880 she became the 1st woman appointed to the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). Charlotte resigned in 1888 from the Royal Canadian Academy over the refusal to have women attend meetings. She exhibited with the Ontario Society of Art from 1876 to 1890 and with the Toronto Industrial Exhibition, the Art Association of Montreal, and the RCA. She was a founding member of the Women's Art Association of Canada. In 1884 the family settled on a farm on the Credit River near Toronto and Charlotte set up a home studio where she gave lessons to many prominent young Canadian artists. One of the 1st women book illustrators in Canada, three children’s books were published in Toronto. After the death of her husband she returned to England in 1890. (2020)

Ethel Seath Born February 5, 1879, Montreal, Quebec. Died April 10, 1963. Family pressures saw Ethel began working right after high school She worked for 20 years as a commercial illustrator for various newspapers in Montreal. Her work allowed her the financial support that allowed her to take classes at the Art Association of Montreal and she also could take sketching trips in the countryside. She began teaching art at The Study and would help students for forty five years. She was a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group and a member of the Canadian Group of Painters. She exhibited her art in exhibitions in Canada, the eastern United States. and took part in the British Empire Exhibition, London, England in 1924 and 1925. In 1939 her works were shown at the New York World's Fair. Later in life she often held exhibits of her work in her home. She retired from her teaching duties at The Study when she was 83. Her works are to be found in the National Gallery of Canada and other institutions. (2020)

Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe

Artist & diarist née Gwillim. Born September22, 1762, Whitchurch, England. Died January 17, 1850, Honiton, England. Elizabeth's middle name earned her middle name, Posthuma, because she was born after the death of her father Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gwillim. Her mother Elizabeth died on the day of Baptism. She grew up at the estate of her stepfather Admiral Samuel Graves. December 30, 1782 she married John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) and Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1791-1796. The couple had seven children which included two born in Upper Canada. Elizabeth and a daughter, Sophia left England with her husband for Canada on September 12, 1791 and arrived on November 11, 1791. Elizabeth kept a diary of her life in Upper Canada which gives insight to life in early Upper Canada. The diary was published in 1934. She also did watercolour paintings of local scenery in Upper Canada leaving a legacy of images of her era in Upper Canada. She was responsible for naming the area of Scarborough after the British local and East and West Gwillimbury, south of Lake Simcoe are named for her family. The Township of Whitchurch is named for her birthplace. In 2007 a statue of Elizabeth was dedicated in the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the town. An Ontario Historic was dedicated to Mrs. Simcoe at Holy Trinity Church, Dunkeswell Abbey, Devon, England. (2020)

Hattie Pearl Steen      3557 Born Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1935 Pearl was named president of the Vancouver Business and Professional Women's Club. In the mid 1930's she was president of the Point Grey Conservative Association and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1952 provincial British Columbia elections. She served on the Vancouver School Board from 1947 through 1952 and was President of the Board in 1950. In 1958 she worked as a member of the British Columbia Centennial Committee and a delegated to the United Nations in 1960. She was also active with the Vancouver Council of Women and would serve as president of the National Council of women from 1964-1967. In 1967 she was names as Vacouver's Good Citizen. Some of her personal papers are maintained at the City of Vancouver Archives. (2021)

Tobie Thelma Steinhouse née Davis. Born April 1, 1925, Montreal, Quebec. She studied in New York, U.S.A. before 1948 to 1957 when she lived in Paris France where she continued studies in graphics and painting. Just prior to leaving Paris she held a solo exhibition of her works. Returning to Montreal she was a founding member in 1965 at Altelier Libre de Recherches Graphics. She became a member of the Canadian Group of Painters and was its last president before it dissolved. In 1967 she was awarded the Jessie Dow Prize for her painting. Tobie also has an interest in Japanese calligraphy and exhibits with the school of Suiha Hiroko Okata in Quebec. Her works form part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal. In 1972 she published Songes et lumière huit eaux-fortes de Tobie Steinhouse [portfolio]. Montreal: La Guilde Graphique. Posted May 2016.

Dorothy Stevens Born September 2, 1888,Toronto, Ontario. Died June 5, 1966, Toronto, Ontario. This portrait and figure painter studied in London, England in 1904 and Paris, France at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie de la grand Chaumére. Dorothy returned to Canada in 1911 to begin her art career. She joined the Chicago Society of Etchers. Her early works were etchings and later she was known for her oils and pastel portraits of women in Toronto, Mexico, and the West Indies. She is also known for prints of factory workers during World War l 1914-1918. The prints were sold to raise money for the war effort. She taught children’s art classes for 15 years in Toronto but, may have been better remembered as throwing the best parties in the city of Toronto! During world War ll 1939-1945 she arranged dances for soldiers to raise money for the war effort. In 1949 she was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Dorothy had shows of her works throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Paris France. Some of her works are held at the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. (2020) Photo Crowley Abbott Art Auctioneers

Françoise Sullivan-Ewen née Sullivan. Born June 10, 1925, Montreal, Quebec As a youth she studied classical dance but also enjoyed classes in visual arts. In 1940 she attended the Ecole des beaux-arts de Montreal. This artist was part of the famous Automatists group of Montreal. As well as her art, she pursued a career in dance after studying in New York City. In 1949 she married artist Paterson Ewen (1925-2002) .After her marriage in 1949 she started a family and found it more difficult to keep up her successful dance career. She turned her artistic talents to welded metal sculptures. She created a monumental sculpture for Expo 67 in Montreal. Plexiglas was her next medium of choice. By 1980 she returned to expressing her artistic talents in her painting. Between 1982 to 1994 she produced several series of works. In 1997 she completed Montagnes (mountains), a granite wall located in the main lobby of President Kennedy Pavilion of Université du Quebec in Montreal. In 1997 she was teaching painting at Concordia University. In 2001 she was inducted into the order of Canada and the following year she became a Knight in the National Order of Quebec. In 2005 she earned the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Jeannie Thib     4035 Born February 10, 1955, North Bay, Ontario. Died October 26, 2013, Toronto, Ontario. Jeannie attended York University in Toronto earning a degree in Fine Arts. Eventually after several jobs at various concerns and in retail sales she began work at Sword Street Press printing lithographs. She taught fine arts at the Art Gallery of Ontario and worked as a scene painted for films, opera, ballet , and theatre groups. When she applied herself to her own works they were exhibited across the country and internationally. Source: Lives Lived: Jeannie Thib, The Globe and Mail January 22, 2014. Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa, Ontario.

Mildred Valley Thornton
Born 1890, Dresden, Ontario. Died July 27, 1967, Vancouver, British Columbia. The family moved to Regina, Saskatchewan in 1913 By 1926 she was married with children, nevertheless she spent weeks at a time away from home, living with different native communities across the prairies, gaining the trust and acceptance of her subjects, who permitted her to attend ceremonies and rituals seldom seen by non-Natives. She captured Canada's Native history in written word and in paintings. She settled in Vancouver in 1934, and continued her interest with aboriginal peoples. The Kwakiutl tribe of British Columbia made her a princess of the Clan Eagle and named her "Ah-ou-Mookht," meaning "the one who wears the blanket because she is of noble birth," and the Cree named her "Owas-ka-esk-ean" or "putting your best ability for us Indians. "She created more than 300 paintings of ceremonies, dances and Native people. She was art critic for the Vancouver Sun newspaper for 16 years until retirement in 1959. She served on the executive of the Canadian Women's Press Club and was a member of the Canadian Authors' Association. In 1960 she became Fellow in the Royal Academy of Arts. Sources: The Thornton Archives, Westbridge Publications Online (Accessed December 2012)

Sydney Strickland Tully 3934 Born March 10, 1860, Toronto, Ontario. Died July 18, 1911, Toronto, Ontario. Sydney studied at the Central Ontario School of are (Now Ontario College of Art and Design) in Toronto. In 1884 she was studying in London, England, at the Slade School of Art. She would go on to study at the Académie Julian, the Académie Colorossi in Paris, France, and then the Long Island Art School in New York, U.S.A. She actually began her career colouring photographs and designing Christmas cards before she began working in oil and pastels. She became known for her landscapes and portraits. She maintained her own studio in Toronto from 1888 through 1890. She travelled internationally to paint and show her works in exhibitions in London, England, The Netherlands, and the Jersey Channel Islands. She also exhibited her works throughout North America. She bequeathed her work, 'The Twilight of Life', to the Art Gallery of Ontario. This painting was the first by a Canadian artist acquired by the O G A. The painting itself made honourable mention at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York and won a bronze medal from the Canadian exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis , Missouri, U. S. A. in 1904. Sydney was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. (2022)

Ruth Tulving                     née Mikkelsaar. Born December 29, 1930, Tartu, Estonia. Died November 16, 2012 Toronto, Ontario. Ruth came to Canada while still a young teenager. In 1950 she married Endel Tulving . The couple have two children. She attended the Ontario College of Art graduating in 1962 winning the Lieutenant Governor Medal. She continued her education at L’academie de la grande Chaumére, Paris and the University of California at Berkley, California, U.S.A. From 1965-through 1973 she taught at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario. In 1966 she received the National Academy of Design Award. She has exhibited her works throughout North and South America, Europe and China with many solo exhibits. In 1977 she was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts. From 1983-1984 she served as President of the Ontario Society of Artists. (2019)

Jessie Redd Ursenbach 3882 Born 1895, New Harmony, Utah, U.S.A. Died 1987, Lethbridge, Alberta. Jessie moved to southern Alberta in 1905. In 1917 she married Octave W. Ursenbach and the couple raised a family of five children. She studied art at the Banff School of art in 1937 and in 1943 on a Carnegie Corporation Scholarship. She also attended classes at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. She was an active member of the Alberta Society of Artists, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the Lethbridge , Alberta, Sketch Club. She taught art privately and for schools in Raymond, Cardston, and Glenwood, Alberta. She preferred to paint realistic watercolour of landscapes, townscapes and flowers. She took part in a variety of art shows throughout Canada, the United States, South American and Europe.. Her last show was in 1996 when she was 90. Some of her works are held in the collections of the University of Lethbridge, the Galt Museum, Lethbridge and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Jessie was also a Matron of the Cardston Alberta Temple of the Later Day Saints. Source: Legacy of Lethbridge Women, Lethbridge Historical Society, 2005; Canadian Women Artists Initiative.

Elizabeth Ann Ashfield Woodburn 4055c Born October 9, 1865, Saint John, New Brunswick. Died July 31, 1945, Saint John, New Brunswick. Annie submitted a painting for competition in 1880 at the Saint John Provincial Exhibition. In 1885 she attended the Owens Art Institution in Saint John and by the secont term she was an assistant teacher. She remained with the Institution until it closed in 1893. In 1896 she became involved with the local Women's Art Association of Canada and participated in their exhibitions. She went overseas studying at the Glasgow School of art and the Haldane Academy in Glasgow, Scotland. She would also attend the New York School of Art in the United States. Between 1899 and 1910 she gave private art lessons at her home. She was also involved with the Saint John Art club. As well as painting Elizabeth enjoyed photography. Her home on Orange St., Saint John has been given an historical standing. Source: Elizabeth Ann Ashfield Woodburn, Museum of New Brunswick, online (accessed 2022)

Photographers    Return to categories

Evelyn Andrus 3940 Born 1909, Hamilton, Ontario. Died 1972, Hamilton, Ontario. Evelyn graduated from the University of Toronto (U of T) and continued to live in the city. An active member of the Toronto Camera Club (T C C) she served as the chair of the education program and taught portrait classes. She also contributed a regular column to the T C C newsletter, Focus. In 1952 she became the first woman president of the T C C and was granted an honourary life membership in 1962. She set up photography lessons for the handicapped for six years at Toronto's Variety Village. For many years she worked at a photographic laboratory at the U of T specializing in Medical, dental, architectural, engineering and botanical photography. She would open a professional studio with a partner, Rex Frost, providing services in scientific photography. She was also a member of the Commercial and Press Photographers' Association and the Photographic Society of American (P S A) where she became director for the Eastern Canada Zone for the P S A. She was in 1950 the first Canadian woman to be made an associate of the Royal Photographic Society of England for her work in colour photography. She suffered from a arthritis she was forced to give up her photographic career. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Edith Hallett Bethune 3942 Born 1890, D'Escousse, Nova Scotia. Died 1970, Berwick, Nova Scotia. Edith enjoyed taking snap shots of life around Berwick, Nova Scotia where she lived with her husband Dr. R. O. Bethune. After she joined the Annapolis Valley Pastoralists she began hand colouring her photographs. Some of her works were on exhibition with the Canadian Salon of Photography. She is also known to have her photographs published in Maclean's magazine under the name of Mrs R. O. Bethune. Her photos also appeared in the Camera magazine, American Photography magazine, the American Annual Photography, and Photo-Era magazine. In 1929 and again in 1931 she won the Kodak competition in photography. In 1933 she won the Diploma for Exceptional Photographic Art at the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition. (2020)

Theodosia Mary Dawes Bond-Thornton   3943 Born 1915, Montreal, Quebec. Died October 27, 2009, Montreal, Quebec. Theodosia studied at the New York Institute of Photography, New York City, U. S. A. She was an active member of the Montreal Camera Club and was an associate of the Royal Photographic Society, England. She enjoyed photographing plant life and landscapes. She married Robert Buchanan Thorton. She was also a well known art collector of the works of the Group of Seven artists. (2022)

Theresa 'Tess' Boudreau-Taconis 3944 Born 1919, Nova Scotia. Died 2007, Guelph, Ontario. Tess lived in nova Scotia and Montreal, Quebec. She spent time in Paris , France as a professional darkroom technical, In 1950 she met her husband Kryn Taconis. the Couple first went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands prior to settling back in Canada in Toronto. In the 1960's Tess worked as a photographer in the arts. She became known for her documentary photography and portraits of artists. Her works can be found at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto where her negtives and contact sheets are part of the AGO Library Special Collections. (2022)

Reva Brooks
Born May 10, 1913, Toronto, Ontario. Died January 24, 2004, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.. She had a short working career as a secretary before she met and married a young artist Leonard Brooks in 1936. During World War ll, Leonard was an official artist with the Canadian Navy. In 1947 the couple used a veteran Affairs grant to travel to Mexico for a year to focus on Leonard’s painting. For the next 50 years, Mexico would remain their base of operations where they played a pinnacle role in establishing a world renounced artist colony at San Miguel de Allenade. At 34 years of age Reva picked up a camera and with a natural eye began taking photos of the people and the countryside in Mexico. Her works achieved critical acclaim in the U.S. and Europe. The photographs have appeared in shows and galleries around the world. Canada was always a part of their soul and the couple served as unique cultural ambassadors for both counties. In 1992 the formed, at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, The Leonard and Reva Brooks foundation to house records of their lives and works. It also promotes the arts in Canada and funds scholarships for Mexican students to study music. Source suggested: Leonard and Riva Brooks: a biography of Canadian artists in exile. By John Virtu, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001. (2021)

Margaret Jane 'Nellie' Bryant Born October 2, 1864 (1865?) Iroquois, Canada West (Ontario). Died July 14, 1947, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Although she intended to be a school teacher when a photographer saw some sketches he offered to teach her photograph retouching methods. This led to a life-long career as a photographer. She started doing tintype and daguerreotype photographs in Ontario at Morrisburg, Augustburg, and the Thousand Islands. After working at a studio in the Thousand Islands for seven years, she started her own studio at Iroquois, later moving to Brockville, Ontario. In 1901, following her marriage, she moved to Winnipeg with her salesman husband, Harry H. Bryant, and opened a studio on Fort Street. She is possibly the first photographer to use dry plates in a camera. Sources: “Mrs. H. H. Bryant dies, aged 82”, Winnipeg Free Press, 16 July 1947, page 7. Memorable Manitobans. Profile by Gordon Goldsborough. Online (accessed December 2011). (2021)

Geneviéve Cadieux Born July 17,1955, Montreal, Quebec. Geneviève earned her bachelor degree in visual arts from the University of Ottawa. She is an artist who uses large photographic pieces as her medium of expression. She is also a sculptor. Her work has been chosen to represent Canada at 3 international expositions. In 1991 she began teaching at Concordia University, Montreal. In 1992 one of her more famous works, La Voie lactée, a photograph of a woman's re lips displayed on the rooftop of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal has become an icon of the city of Montréal. She also had solo exhibitions across North America, Europe, Brazil and Australia. In 1997 she was a guest professor in Paris and Grenoble, France. In 2011 she received the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts. (2018)

Brenda Beryl 'Blossom' Caron 3945 née Harding. Born 1905, Montreal, Quebec. Died 1999, Montreal, Quebec. Blossom may have learned some photography from her father who was an amateur photographer. She was a member of the Montreal Camera Club and in 1981 she wrote and published a short history of the Club. Along with her husband she helped organize the Montreal International Salon of Photography 1941-1969. She was also an organizer for the Woman's World Exhibition of Photography at the Expo 67 during Canada's Centennial celebrations. Her own photographs, which were mainly still life works, appeared in numerous magazines including Saturday Night. Her works have been collected by the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the McCord Museum in Montreal and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D. C., U.S.A. Source: Canadian Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Rosetta Ernestine Carr 3817 née Watson. Born 1845, Drummond Township, Canada West (now Ontario). Died July 6, 1907, Ottawa, Ontario. Rosetta studied photography in New York City, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. and at the famous Canadian William Notman Studio in Ottawa, Ontario. Moving to the Canadian northwest she purchased a photographic business in 1884 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and called it the American Art Gallery. She became well known not only for her portraits but also for her landscape photography with images between Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay, Ontario) to the Rocky Mountains. In 1896 she won a diploma and medal at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. She also won a number of prizes at the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition. Rosetta sold the business in 1899 and moved to Ottawa. She married a man named Carr at some point. Some of her works are maintained at the Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, and the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, Quebec. Source: D C B

Florence c. Casler 3818 née Sherk. Born May 30, 1869, Welland, Ontario. Died March 15, 1954, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Florence married a plumber, John H. Casler, and they opened a plumbing business in Buffalo, New York, U.S.A. Her husband was lured away with the call of the gold mines and she was left to raise their two daughters. While her husband went to the gold rush she earned her license as a plumber and built the business to have 12 employees. While her husband did return from the gold fields he had not earned a fortune. Florence became a widow in 1912. Moving to Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. in 1921 she worked as a builder and developer. She joined the real estate development company Lloyd and Casler Inc. but by 1928 she was out on her own developing numerous business building. In 2008 the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission recognized Florence as one of the first business women in the 20th century to head such a development company. In 1925 she was also the only female director of a bank in the city. In 1933 she became an honorary member of the local Canadian Society. (2022)

Cynthia Chalk 3946 née Jennings. Born December 9, 1913, Ottawa, Ontario. Died April 5, 2018, Montreal, Quebec. In 1936 Cynthia Married Henry Chalk and the couple raised three children. Living in Montreal was a life member of the Montreal Camera Club where she co-edited the Club newsletter, Cameragram. She would also serve as chair of the Nature Division at the the Montreal Camera Club. Cynthia also served on the executive of the National Association for Photographic Arts, the Canadian Association for Photographic Art and the Photographic Society of American. As a photographer she preferred nature and her works appeared in such magazines as Outdoors Canada. She was included in the National Film Board exhibition called Photography 75. At home in Montreal whe was involved in her community as a leader in Girl Guides and as a founding member of the Montreal Motorcycle Club for Women. (2022)

Lynne Cohen 3950 Born July 3, 1944, Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Died May 12, 2014, Montreal, Quebec. . Lynne studied printmaking and sculpture at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. and then went to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S.A. where she taught from 1968 through 1973.   Going overseas to England she studied for a year at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. By 1973 she was living at first in Ottawa, Ontario where she taught at Algonquin College for two years. She then taught from 1974 through to 2005 at the University of Ottawa. and then in Montreal, Quebec from 2005 through till her death. Her photographs were of empty institutional interiors, living spaces, public halls, retirement homes, offices, show rooms, shooting ranges, and military installations. Her work was published in catalogues such as Occupied Territory in 1987 and in No Man's Land in 2001. Her works have been featured in over 100 solo exhibitions across North America, Europe, and Mexico. In 2005 she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and in 2011 she received the inaugural Scotiabank Photography Award. Her works can be found in the collections of over 50 public institutions. (2022)

Henrietta Anne Constantine 3951 née Armstrong. Born 1857, Ottawa, Ontario. Died 1934, Kingston, Ontario. In 1872 Henrietta moved with her family to Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1873 she married Charles Constantine (1846-1912) of the North West Mounted Police. The couple had three sons. Henrietta traveled with her husband for two decades taking with her her camera to record with photography the landscape of the Canadian northwest. She was also known for collecting First Nationals art during her travels. In 1905 the family moved to California, U.S.A. for health reasons. After the death of her husband in 1912 Henrietta settled in Kingston, Ontario where she lived with one of her sons. Some of her photographs are preserved in the collections of the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. In 2011 a exhibit, The Constantine Collection of Northern Indigenous Art toured Ontario museums and art galleries. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Imitative online (accessed 2022)

Clarissa 'Clara' Archibald Dennis Born November 24, 1881, Truro, Nova Scotia. Died February 16, 1958, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Clara atteded Mount Allison College, Dalhousie University, and the Halifax Business College. She worked at her father's newspaper, The Halifax Herald, until his death in 1920. During World War l (1914-1918) she opened her home to soldiers and was a strong supporter of initiatives helping prisoners of war and foreign troops stationed in Halifax. Clara was an active life member of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. She enjoyed photography and in 1934 her photographs accompanied her publication Down in Nova Scotia: My Own, My Native Land. Three years later her photographs appeared in her More About Nova Scotia: My Own, My Native Land. Her last book appeared in 1942 called Cape Breton Over. She also used her photographs to accompany numerous travel articles for newspapers and magazines. The 1939 souvenir booklet chapter on Nova Scotia, produced for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth tour of Canada also contained some of her photographs. Some of her works are preserved by the Nova Scotia Archives. Source; Nova Scotia Archives; Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Jennifer Dickson Born September 17, 1936, Piet Relief, South Africa. In the 1950's she studied painting and printmaking at Goldsmiths College of Art which is part of the University of London, England. In the early 196-0s she studied at Atelier 17, Paris, France. In 1962 she held her 1st solo exhibition in London, England. While teaching at Brighton College of Art in England she set up a graduate program in printmaking and photography. Immigrating to Canada in 1969 she worked as Director O Graphics at the Sadie Bronfman Centre, Montreal, Quebec. In 1976 she was elected as a Royal Academician. Relocating to Ottawa she was a lecturer at the University of Ottawa. She has taken her camera around the world and is well known for her printmaking techniques combining silkscreen, etching, aquatint, and collograph. In 1995 she became a Member of the Order of Canada.

Marie-Alice Dumont 3953 Born October 10, 1892, Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, Quebec. Died 1985, Kamouraska, Quebec. Marie-Alice may have learned photography from her brother Napoléon. It is known that she studied photography from a photographer in Rivière-du-Loup. In 1925 she opened her own photography studio in Kamouraska. She did portraits and photographed landscapes in and around Kamouraska. In 1960 she was forced to close her studio due to illness. Prior to her death she donated 10,000 negatives to the Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurant. She is considered the first woman professional photographer in Eastern Quebec. Collections of her works are also found at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Archives of the Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Chantal duPont 3955 Born 1942. Died February 25, 2019, Montreal, Quebec. . Chantal graduated from the Ecole des beaux-arts de Montreal in 1966 and went on to complete a Masters degree from Concordia University, Montreal in 1969. Her works have been exhibited at many video festivals across the country and abroad. In 2001 she presented her video Du front tout le tour de la tete in Lisbon and Quebec winning awards. In 2007 she received the Bell Canada Award. She also was well respected for assisting young artists. (2022)

Mildred 'Millie' Gamble 3956 Born December 17, 1887, Cascumpec, Prince Edward Island. Died December 13, 1986, Prince Edward Island. Millie received a gift of a camera in 1904 while visiting with her uncle. This was the beginning of a life long avocation. She loved taking photographs of people doing everyday things. Millie worked as a teacher in North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island in 1905/6 and then from 1907 through 1919 in Tryon. In 1919 she relocated to Winnipeg Manitoba to study nursing. She graduated from the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing in 1922 and returned home to Prince Edward Island to work in nursing until retiring in 1949. In 1983 she pharaohs was on exhibition for the first time in a show called Rediscovering Canadian Women Photographers 1841-1941. Some of her works are preserved in the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. In 2006 part of the former Trans-Canada Highway in Tyron, Prince Edward Island, was named Millie Gamble Road. (2022)

Dawn Elaine Goss Born June 27, 1961, St Catherines, Ontario. After her university studies at Brock and Guelph she began her career of travel and photojournalism. She coordinated and co-authored an 18 month photographic journey along the Trans Canada Highway. Many of her photos were displayed at the Canadian Pavilion at the World Expo '86. She was the photographer / writer of the storey of the 1987 Canadian Olympic torch relay. She has presented articles and photos for such magazines as Maclean's, Equinox, Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, Newsweek as well as being featured in several Canadian newspapers. As well as a love for travel she enjoys playing the piano and cross country skiing.

Angela Grauerholz Born January 10, 1952, Hamburg, Germany. This artistic photographer has an international reputation with major exhibitions in Canada, U.S.A. and Europe. Her works include portraits, scenes, interiors and exteriors, all with a sense of timelessness. Her works raise a question of "What is beneath the obvious". (source: the Canadian Encyclopedia Online accessed May 2003)

Ida Madeline 'Mattie' Gunterman 3957 née Warner. Born spring 1872, La Crosse, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Died 1945. In 1891 Mattie married candy maker William Gunterman and the couple had one son. In 1897 Mattie began taking photographs of family and her interest in photography blossomed. She was encouraged with training in the fundamentals of photography from her uncle who owned a Photography studio. From 1899 she was a cook at a British Columbia mining camp and while there created autobiographical photographs. In the early 1900's she photographed herself in Lardeau in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. She photographed everyday life in camp in the mines, and logging. In 1927 her Beaton home was destroyed by fire and she lost much of her early works but one album was saved. 300 of her glass plate negatives are preserved in the collections of the Vancouver Public Library. In 2018 her works along with some of the works of painter Emily Carr (1871-1945) were displace at the Vancouver Art Gallery. (2022).

Elsie Holloway 3958 Born 1882, St. John's, Newfoundland. Died 1971, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Elsie's father, Robert, was a landscape photographer and introduced his two children to the art of photography. In the early 1900's Elsie and her brother Bert opened the Holloway Studio in St. John's. It was the first portrait studio in Newfoundland. Elsie specialized in portraits. During World War l (1914-1918) Elsie was creating portraits of the members of the Newfoundland Regiment. Sadly Bert was killed while serving in Monchy-le-Preus, France. Elsie kept the family studio open and in 1932 she photgraphed Amelia Earhart's famous solo flight from Harbour Grace. Sadly many of her glass negatives were stripped of their emulsion and used to construct a greenhouse. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Zahra 'Zibi' Kazeml-Ahmadabadi Born 1948, Shiraz, Iran. Died July 11, 2003, Iran. She moved to France in 1974 to study literature and cinema at the University of Paris. She worked in Africa, Latin-America, the Caribbean and the mid east including Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. She became a well established in film documentaries who's themes were poverty, destitution forced exile and oppression wherever it appeared in the world. She emigrated with her family to Canada in 1993. June 23, 2003 she was arrested taking photos outside Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. She was subjected to severe torture in the prison that she was photographing. the Iranian judiciary declared her death an accident and effectively closed the case. Continued pressure from individuals and the Canadian government on behalf of its citizen finally, in February 2005, brought Iran to admit that she had been murdered.

Minna Keen née Bergman. Born April 5,1861, Arolsen, Germany. Died November 1943. A self taught photographer in the pioneering days of photography she was the first woman to become a fellow to the Royal Photographic Society. She came to Canada in 1913 where commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to photograph the Rockies. She opened her studio in Toronto and was recognized with awards from Japan, South Africa, and Australia. The National Archives of Canada and the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S.A. collect her works.

Elise L'Heureux-Livernois 3962 Born January 27, 1827. Died January 1896, Quebec City, Quebec. In 1849 Elise married Jules-Isaie Benoit (dit Livernois) (1830-1865). The couple had a son and a daughter. By 1854 the couple had a photography studio in her parents home. Elise concentrated on taking portraits of children. After the death of her husband Elise continued to run the business which by this time had expanded to three studios. In 1866 she joined with her son-in-law Louis Bienvenu to form the Livernois and Bienvenu photography studio. This was also the year Elise had her firs exhibition at the Nouvelle Galerie Historique. In 1867 she exhibited a collection of portraits of celebrities. In 1873 her son Jules Ernest Livernois took over the family business. Many of the works from her studios are maintained in the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, and the Bibliothéque et archives nationales du Québec. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Elaine Ling 3963 Born December 19,1946, Hong Hong. Died August 1, 2016*, Toronto, Ontario. In the 1950's Elaine immigrated with her family to settle in Scarborough, Ontario. Elaine graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biological and Medical Sciences and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1974. Dr. Ling practiced medicine in the Cree Pikangikum First Nation in Northwestern Ontario prior to relocating to Kathmandu, Nepal. It was here that she took photographs of women leprosy patients. Elaine also maintained a primary practice in Ajax, Ontario. Elaine was also an accomplished musician playing the piano, baritone oboe, guitar and cello. She was an ardent supporter Toronto Symphony Orchestra and sponsored cellists for the Toronto Music Festival. .Her works have been displayed across North America, Europe and Cuba. Ryerson Image Centre (R I C) of Toronto Metropolitan University (T M U) awards the annual Elaine Ling Research fellowship to masters level students pursuing studies in photography. Some of her works are preserved in the collections of the R I C, Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the The, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and the Brooklyn Museum, New York City, U.S.A. * death date is sometime reported as August 4, 2016. Source: In memory of artist Elaine Ling Ryerson Image Centre August 4, 2016 online (accessed 2022)

Alvira Lockwood 4077 Died 1925, Ottawa, Ontario. In the early 1850's Joseph Lockwood was an itinerant daguerreotypist (photographer) travelling with his family and his cameras in eastern Ontario. His daughter Alvira was just a youth when she started to help her father in the business. It was a risky business what with all the flammable and explosive chemicals required in the process of developing the photographs. By the mid 1850's the family had a family home in Ottawa which contained their photographic studio. There were the first photographers in the city to use the ambrotyoe process of developing. When Joseph dies at forty in 1859 his wife and daughters, including Alvira who was 12 at the time, took over the business. By 1863 the business was in Alvira's name. In 1873 the business was destroyed by fire. A sister, Marie, moved to Almonte and set up her own studio after the fire. Alvira moved her business to several locations in the city until 1886 when she finally closed the studio and went to Paris, France. Back in Ottawa by 1891 she taught painting and drawing. Source: Into the Light by Laura Jones in Canada History June 16, 2002 online.

Ann Martyn née Lambly. Mrs. John Martyn. Born 1808, Quebec City. She is the 1st Canadian woman to be active with the early photographic daguerreotype process. She worked with her husband in his studio in 1847 until his death in 1850. After the death of her husband she began to advertise under her own name that year until 1853 when she remarried and gave up the business. She falls from commercial records after her second marriage, indicating that she devoted herself to her new family life.

Mariette 'Mia' Matthes 3964 née Gauthier. Born 1920, Montreal, Quebec. Died November 26, 2010. In 1952 Mi married Klaus Matthes (died 1999) The couple took photographs of rural and urban landscapes in Canada and the world using the name 'Mia and Klaus' and opened the first commercial studio in Montreal in 1958. They published several books of their works as well they were featured at the World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, Expo 86, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mia was also a teacher of fashion design at the Ecole Méngere provincial de Montréal. In 1998 the couple were both inducted into the National Order of Quebec. After the death of her husband in 1999, Mia continued her photography and produced more books. Her last book is a collection of works of her life spanning 50 years. In 200 the Canada Post Corporation used Mia's photos of the Saint John River in New Brunswick in the commemorative stamp series 'Fresh Waters of Canada'. Source: Canadian Women Artists History Initiative online (accessed 2022)

Hannah Maynard née Hatherly Born January 17, 1834, Bude, England. Died May 15, 1918, Victoria, British Columbia. Hanna married Richard Maynard (1832-1907) in 1852 and they immigrated to Canada to settle in Bowmanville, Canada West (now Ontario) where they opened boot store. The couple had five children. Hannah learned photography in Bowmanville and closed the boot store to follow her gold prospecting husband to Victoria, British Columbia. Here she began her own shop, Mrs. R. Maynard's Photographic Gallery. She used experimental techniques such a photomontage and multiple exposures in her portraits making her subjects seem to be posing as if they were made of stone. She also used lin-lit photography to highlight facial features of her clients.   Richard left the gold fields and leaned the trade from her and became a landscape photographer. Richard also operated a boot store. The couple became financially stable to allow trips to San Francisco, California, U.S.A. to purchase photographic equipment. The couple also travelled documenting their trips with photographs. Richard went as far as to travel to the Bearing Sea. Hanna was also know for producing Cartes-de-visite which were in demand in the 1860's. In the 1880's and 1890's she created a series called 'Gems of British Columbia' which was published in 1885. Some of her multiple exposure works appeared in the St. Louis and Canadian Photographer in 1894. In the late 1890's Hannah was the official photographer of the Victoria Police Department producing required 'mug shots'. She continued working after the death of her husband in 1907 and retired in 1912. Janet Munsil has written a play, Be Still, based on Hannah's life. The play was adapted into a film of the same name. A previous film, The Multiple Selves of Hannah Maynard was released in 2005. (2022)

Helen Barnard McCall Born February 7, 1899, British Columbia. Died May 1956/7, British Columbia. As an only child Helen grew up with an independent spirit out of the necessity of executing the daily physical tasks of life. She loved to hike and enjoyed the beauty of nature. After the “boys” returned home from World War l she married a practically disabled veteran, Hector McCall. Her independence and strength of spirit allowed her the fortitude to adapt a career to support herself and her family. There was not a lot of work in the small town of Gibson’s Landing, British Columbia. She learned photography as self employment. Living without such luxuries as electricity she processed family photos of the locals as well as her won work. She showed pioneering spirit and followed her ideas to produce clear professional works of local evens and landscapes into popular post cards. Events depicted on her post cards made local lives seem important. She was the sole supporter of her two children during the Great Depression, providing not only for her family but leaving a legacy of recorded regional history from her own self-determination and common sense. Source: Saskatoon Women’s Calendar Collective. Herstory 2007: the Canadian Women’s Calendar (Regina: Couteau Books, 2006) pg. 22

Lorraine Althea Constance Monk née Squrrell. Born May 26, 1922, Montreal, Quebec. Died December 17, 2020, Toronto, Ontario. Lorraine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in history and sociology in 1944 and went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in 1946 both from McGill University, Montreal. She became ill with tuberculosis which prevented her from studying for her doctorate. She had a short marriage to Lloyd Hackwell and the couple had one daughter. She married a second time to John Monk (died 1979) when she moved to Ottawa. The couple added two sons and another daughter to the family. She began working for the Canadian government writing the history of the Royal Canadian Navy during World War ll (1939-1945). In 1957 she was working with the National Film Board of Canada (N F B) writing captions for photos and by 1960 she was the executive producer of Photo Services (later the Still Photography Division) at the N F B. which provided photographs for government departments. In 1967 she inaugurated the N F B Photo Gallery, the first gallery dedicated to contemporary Canadian photography. Also during Canada's Centennial she saw the publication of Canada: A year of the Land. She was also a recipient of the Canadian Centennial Medal. In 1973 she was inducted into the Order of Canada and promoter to the level of Officer in 1983. In 1980 she relocated to live in Toronto. In 1985 she helped establish the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Toronto with satellite museums across the country. In the 1990's she was defrauded of money which caused severe depression. In 2002 she was presented with the Queen Elizabeth ll Golden Jubilee Medal. In 2007 she became a member of the Order of Ontario. In 2020 Lorraine married Daniel Fernandez, a music composer. (2022)

Geraldine Moodie 3766 née Fitzgibbon. Born October 31, 1854, Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario). Died October 4, 1945, Alberta. Geraldine was the granddaughter of early Ontario pioneer and author Susanna Moodie (1803-1885). In 1878, while in England, Geraldine married John Douglas Moodie. Returning to Canada they took up an unsuccessful attempt at farming in Manitoba. The couple had six children. The family relocated to Ottawa, Ontario. In 1885, when John received a commission with the North West Mounted Police they were stationed in Saskatchewan. Geraldine enjoyed painting with watercolours but soon switched to photography as her artistic outlet. In Battleford, Saskatchewan she set up a studio wherever they lived including for five years and when they moved to Maple Creek in 1897 to 1900. She took portraits of the North West Mounted Police officers, First nations peoples as well as ranching life and nature. In 1895 she was commissioned by the government of Canada to photograph the Northwest Resistance. In 1904 for a year and in 1906 for three years she accompanied her husband in the eastern Artic and Hudson's Bay area studying the Inuit, First Nations peoples, and Artic nature. She continued using her camera when the couple were posted to Regina in 1910. With her husband's retirement in 1917 the couple settled on a ranch in the Cypress Hills of Alberta then to Maple Creek and finally settling in British Columbia. Many of her photographs are preserved in the Collections at the Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa and the British Museum in England. Her biography, In Search of Geraldine Moodie was written by Danny White and published by the University of Regina. Source: The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan online (accessed 2022) Photograph a self portrait, Parks Canada Battleford Photo Collection BW 13.

Silvia Pecota Born 1961, Toronto, Ontario. As a child he loved to draw but it was soon through the eye of a camera that she would show her artistic tendencies. Her camera is always ready by her side. Her photographic works have appeared in North American and European publications. She is the firs Canadian woman to hold an exhibition in the former Soviet Union. She has also had her works exhibited in Germany, Italy and Australia as well as at home in Canada. She enjoys portraiture and is well known for her photographs of sport figures. Her interest in sport led her to complete a short documentary on boxing. In 1994 she was introduced to the Canadian arctic when doing a documentary shoot. Finding that the child did not seem to have much for entertainment she launched an effort to collect hockey equipment for the children of northern Canada. In turn this led to her first book Hockey across Canada (Mini Mundus Publishing, 2003) that includes images digitally created by combining her photographs with painting. It has since been translated into Inuktitut. Who knows what books will follow.

Thelma Vivian Pepper 3966 Born 1920, Kingston, Nova Scotia. Died December 1, 2020, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Thelma's father and grandfather were both amateur photographers. During the Second World War (1939-1945) she often help her father photographing pilots landing at a nearby air base and then provide copies of the photo to the pilot's families. Thelma studied science at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia and went on to earn her Masters of Science in botany at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. In 1949 she and her husband, Jim, settled in Saskatoon where they would raise their four children. When Thelma was in her 60's she took up photography. In 1983 she staged an exhibition at the Macdonald Museum, Middleton, Nova Scotia that included works father and grandfather. A few years later the exhibit was at the Diefenbaker Centre in Saskatoon. She volunteered at a local nursing home and bought a top of the line camera taking photographs of the residents and began participating in exhibitions. She would go on to become an acclaimed portrait photographer especially capturing the lives and emotions of women. She would often interview the elderly women who were in her portraits in long term care facilities about their prairie lives. Thelma had her first solo exhibition in 1986. In 1996 she used her nursing home photographs in the exhibit 'Decades of Voices'. She documented the lives of 10 pioneers living along highway 41 in Saskatchewan for her exhibit 'Spaces of Belonging'. In 2006 she compiled 'Untie the Spirit' documenting life at the Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon. A Year at Sherbrooke is a 2009 National Film Board documentary based on her work and that of artist Jeff Nachtigall. In 2011 she published Human Torch: Portraits of Strength, Courage, & Dignity with over 50 portraits. In the fall of 2014 she was presented with the Lieutenant Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2018 she was inducted into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. In 2020 , celebrating 100 years since her birth the book Thelma: A Life In Pictures was published. Collections of her works are maintained in archives, museums, and galleries across her home province. (2022)

Jenny Inez Pike 3967 née Whitehead. Born July 23, 1922, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Died April 19, 2004, Victoria, British Columbia. Growing up she enjoyed helping her older brother in his photo lab in Saskatoon. As an adult her first job was in the photography department of the Eaton's Department Store. During World War ll in 1943 she was accepted as a probationary recruit in the newly formed Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (W R E N S) and took photography training in Ottawa. In February 1944 she was in London England. She would help develop the first photos of the D-Day June 6, 1944 landings. After the War she married Donovan Pike and the couple raised two children in Victoria, British Columbia. She had become a member of the Winnipeg Royal Canadian Legion and later joined the Ex-Service Women's Branch 182 in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1969 she began a job as a darkroom technician with the Victoria City Police Identification Unit. She retired in 1983. She was also popular as a wedding photographer. She was not only a member of the Royal Canadian Legion but also a member of the Daughters of the Nile, and the Victoria Pentax Camera Club. Source: Obituary. Victoria Times Colonist April 2004. Online (accessed 2022)

Nina Raginsky Born April 14,1941. Choosing a career as a photographer, by 1964 she was doing freelance work for the National Film Board of Canada. She first expanded her photographic expression by hand colouring sepia prints and then began to create oil paintings based on photographs. She is perhaps best known for her formal full figure portraits. She is an Officer in the Order of Canada. (2020)

Alix Cléo Roubaud 3968 née Blanchette. Born January 19, 1952, Mexico. Died January 28, 1983, Paris France. Alix was born while her Canadian diplomatic father was posted to Mexico. She graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in in architecture and psychology from the University of Ottawa. She continued her education in Aix-en Provence, France. In 1975 she began studying at Paris 8 University. To help with her asthma she began visiting the spa town of La Bourboule. She left her studies to follow a career in photography in 1979 and the following year she married Jean Eustache a French poet and academic. That same year Jean produced the film Les Photos d'Alxi. (2020)

Faigel 'Faye' Lazebnik Schulman   3969 née Lazebnik. Born November 28, 1919, Sosnkowicze, Poland. (now Lenin in Belarus). Died April 24, 2021, Toronto, Ontario. As a youth she was apprenticed to the village photographer and when she was 16 she took over the studio. After the Nazis invasion her family was imprisoned in Lenin Ghetto. Members of her family were killed on August 14, 1942. She was one of 26 Jews who were not killed that day. Her photographic skills saved her and she while she worked for the Nazis she joined the local resistance. She worked as a nurse for the Molotava Brigade of resistance from 1942 to July 1944. She also continued taking photographs. After the war she and her husband, Morris Schulman, lived in the Lindsberg displaces persons camp in Germany helping to smuggle weapons to support Israeli independence. The couple had two children. In 1948 the couple immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto where she worked in a dress factory and later hand coloured photographs and painted in oils. She was decorated for her work in the resistance by the Soviet/Belorussian, American and Canadian governments. In 1995 she was the author of the publication. A Partisan's Memoir: Woman of the Holocaust. She was also in the 1999 Public Broadcasting System (P B S) documentary film, Daring to Resist: Three Women Face the Holocaust. In 2015 she had a solo exhibit entitled: Pictures of Resistance: the Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman. Source: Obituary, New York Times May 8, 2021online (accessed 2022)

Mary Spencer 3970 Born October 4, 1857, St. Catharines, Canada West (now Ontario). Died September 1, 1938, Summerland, British Columbia. Like so many young women of her era Mary took on teaching as her firs career. She studied to earn her teaching certificate after high school at the Lincoln County Model School in 1877. She taught at first in Port Severn and then went on to the Toronto Normal School (teachers' College) to improve her credentials. She then taught in Port Colborne in 1880. She enjoyed painting and embraced the art of photography. Mary, along with her mother and her sister moved across the country to Kamloops, British Columbia 1898. Here she set up her photography studio on June 25, 1899. She also offered painting lessons. In 1903 she built a new studio that included living accommodations on the second story. She was known for her portraits and souvenir post cards and souvenir books. By 1906 she was working for the Vancouver Daily Province covering the trial of the famous train robber Bill Miner(1847-1913). That same year she and her sister bought an orchard in Summerland, British Columbia and in 1909 she sold her photography studio and moved to Summerland where she is known to have continued painting scenes on china. (2022)

Barbara Spohr 3971 Born 1955, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died 1987, Calgary, Alberta. Barbara studied painting and printmaking at the Alberta College of Art and at the Banff School of Fine art. In 1977 she changed her focus on life and embraced photography as a means of artistic expression. Barbara lived in Nelson, British Columbia for awhile where she photographed local everyday happenings in the town. She eventually found her way back to live in Alberta. Her works have been exhibited in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, as well as in the United States. The Barbara Spohr Award was created by her family and friends to encourage the development of Canadian contemporary photography. Some of her images are maintained in the National Gallery, Ottawa, the National Film Board of Canada, Esso Resource s, the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alberta, the Alberta Public Archives, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and other public an private collections in Canada and the U.S.A. (2022)

Anna Delia Topley 4078 née Harrison. Born October 8, 1825, Ireland. Died October 5, 1906, Ottawa, Ontario. In 1858 Anna learned the daguerreotype process of photography from the famous photographer William Notman (1826-1891) in Montreal. It was Anna who taught her 15 year old son William James Topley (1845-1930), the photographic process. The boy's father build a shed beside their Aylmer, Quebec home to accommodate the family After the death of his father in 1863 William became an itinerant tintypist to help support the family. For awhile he worked with Notman in Montreal and eventually purchased Notman's Ottawa studio. By 1872 the Ottawa studio had photographed 2,300 people. In 1907 William de Courcy Topley too over the studio until 1926. Over two hundred thousand images from the Topley studio were deposited in the Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. Source: Into the Light by Laura Jones in Canada History June 16, 2002 online; Find a Grave Canada online (accessed 2022).

Michelle Valberg
Born January 8. She studied photography at Algonquin College and then at the University of Ottawa. She owns and operates a combined photography gallery and studio in Ottawa. She is a self published author of several books including Dare to Dream: a Celebration of Canadian women, which showcases 100 inspirational women. Her volunteer work includes being a board member of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (C H E O) and the S C O Health Services Foundation. She is also co-chair of Capital Talk, an Ottawa based group that organizes local charity fundraisers. In 2000 she was the YMCA/YWCA Woman of Distinction in the arts category for Ottawa. In 2003 the Women’s Business Network named her as Ottawa’s Businesswoman of the Year. The following year she received recognition of the Ottawa Business Journal as a member of 40 under 40 Award. In 2005 she was given St. Joe’s Women’s Shelter Quality of Life Award and was Algonquin Colleges’ Alumnus of the Year. Sources: Women in Ottawa: Mentors and Milestones Accessed June 2011.

Margaret Watkins Born November 8, 1884, Hamilton, Ontario. Died 1969, Glasgow, Scotland. Always 'crafty' Margaret was selling her own handmade items in her father's department store when she was in her mid teens. In 1908 she began working at Roycroft Arts and Crafts and at Sidney Lanier Camp in northeaster U.S.A. This is when she first developed an interest in photography. In 1913 she was in Boston, Massauchetts, U.S.A. working as an assistant in a commercial photography studio. She also enjoyed writing poetry and sinning in the Mendelshon and Wagner with the Temple Israel choir. Relocating to New York she studied with various photographers and at the Clarence H. White Summer School of Photography in the state of Maine, U.S.A. where she would also do some teaching herself. Margaret opened a studio in Greenwich Village in New York City, U.S.A. and in 1920 was editor of Pictorial Photography in America. Specializing in advertising photography she produced works for Macy's department stores and other businesses. She was on of the first women photographers to provide works to advertising agencies. She also dit landscapes, portraits and still life works. In 1928 she was bases in Glasgow, Scotland and traveled throughout Europe producing works of store fronts and displays. (2022)

Sally Elizabeth/Eliza Wood
3973 Born 1857, Knowlton, Quebec. Died 1928, Knowlton, Quebec. Sally worked as an apprentice for the acclaimed Canadian photographer William Notman (1826-1891) in Montreal. Returning home she worked ata local Knowlton photography studio. In 1897 she opened her own studio in Knowlton. By 1905 through 1907 she had produced a series of postcard showing the local buildings and landscapes. The tinted post cards by Valentine & Sons, Scotland. She also produced traditional portraits, Cartes-de-visite, and covered large family gatherings. Some of her images are maintained in the McCord Museum, Montreal. (2022)

Sculptors and Carvers    Return to categories

Ruth Abernathy Born Lindsay, Ontario. She studied at Malaspine College/University, Nanaimo, British Columbia. She worked at 21 as head of Props at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Center. In 1981, while working at the Stratford Theatre in Ontario she earned the Guthrie Award. In 1985 the Canada Council allowed her to pursue arts explorations in Japan and Europe. She designed the famous bronze statue of Glen Gould sitting on a bench displayed outside the CBC building in Toronto in 1999. She has since sculpted numerous well known personalities such as former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, poet John McCrae, renowned golfer Arnold Palmer, actor Al Waxman, and jazz great Oscar Peterson which was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth in 2010. Her works have been exhibited throughout North America, Australia and Europe. Many of her full body life size statues include room for people to sit next to the statue so that fans can be photographed beside their favourite personality. She has also worked in textiles, lace and stainless steel.   Source: Ruth Abernethy, website (accessed September 2005).

Dinah Anderson Born May 10, 1956, Okak Bay, Labrador. As a child Dinah remembers that her family were part of a native relocation program that took them to Goose Bay, Labrador. Here they were taught English in school and even today she suffers from the loss of her maternal native language. She would go to Memorial University in Newfoundland to take the Teacher Education Program and this wetted her appetite for more education. She graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa in 1994. During her summers she had done some carving with soapstone but it was not until she began working at the Nain Carving workshop the she became dedicated to sculpting.

Lois Etherington Betteridge Born November 6, 1928, Drummondville, Quebec. Died February 21, 2020, Guelph, Ontario. Lois spend her youth in Hamilton, Ontario and attended the Ontario College of Art and went on to study at the University of Kansas to earn a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1951. Back home in Ontario she took classes at what is now Ryerson University, Toronto and from 1954-1956 she attended the Cranbrook Academy of art to complete a Master’s degree in Fine Art. After graduation with $500.00 funding from her father she opened a small studio in Oakville, Ontario. By 1953 she had relocated her studio to Toronto. She made custom-designed jewellery and hollowware for her clients. for three years taught weaving, design and metal arts at the MacDonald Institute (now part of the University of Guelph). Resigning from teaching she planned to study in England but instead met and married Keith Betteridge, a student at the Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, Ontario. The couple moved to England in 1961 where they started their family and she established a studio. The family were back in Canada in 1967 and Lois began to work more with hollowware. She taught and lectured and began offering apprenticeships at her studio. By the 1970 her work shifted to more organic forms. Her works were shown throughout Canada and Europe. She has taught and mentored numerous Canadian metal artists who have achieved prominence. In 1974 she became a Distinguished Member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and the following year she received Distinguished Professional Achievement at the University of Kansas. In 1978 she became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and was the recipient of the Saidy Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts. In 1997 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. 2002 YM/YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2002 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, Government of Canada and in 2010 she earned the Lifetime Achievement Award, from the Society of North American Goldsmiths. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and in 2014 she won the John and Barbara Mather Award for Lifetime Achievement, Craft Ontario. Source: Obituary (2020)

Sandra Bromley A multidisciplinary artist who's works have appeared in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and North America. Sandra graduated from the University of Alberta in 1979 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction in sculpture. She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the 2000 Salute to Excellence arts Award from the City of Edmonton and the 2002/3 Canadian Consortium on Human Security Non-academic Fellowship which she is using to create artwork on women and children in post-conflict countries. Co-founder of the iHuman Youth Society which serves high-risk youth. She is also founder of the Sierra Leone Bo Girls Group. She is a member of the Mayor's Task Force for Community Safety in Edmonton, Alberta. Source: Sandra Bramley web page online (accessed 2022)

Martha Cole Born 1946, Regina, Saskatchewan. While still a young teen Martha decided that she would be an artist. During her high school years she was encouraged by her teachers. She earned a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the University of Washington in Seattle, U.S.A. Returning to Canada in 1970 she moved to Toronto where she worked as slide librarian at the Fine Arts Department of the University of Toronto. She earned her bachelor of education and went on to teach art at a Toronto high school. By 1976 she was back in Saskatchewan wanting to work part time as a teacher and take time for her art. She purchased an old church in Disley, a town of 48 people just outside of Regina. She began sewing artistic works. In 1984 she had her 1st fabric based exhibition in Regina. In 1956 she became fascinated with artistic books, binding for the sake of art. Sources: Herstory; A Canadian Woman’s Calendar 2000. Coteau Books, 1999; Martha Cole web page (accessed August 2011). (2022)

Margreta 'Greta' Dale 3808 née Lundberg.Born 1929, Kelowna, British Columbia. Died January 1978. Greta studied at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto from 1949-1954. In 1953 she and fellow student Jack Dale moved to Vancouver and were married. The couple had two children. At the end of the decade Greta studied for a year in Mexico where whe was introduced to forms and textures of the Mayan architecture. Returning to Vancouver, Greta completed two public murals one in Comax and another at Johnston Hights Secondary School, Surry. During the early 1960's she lived with Wilfrid R. Ussner and lived in Montreal with some trips to Europe and Mexico. By 1969 she had received a Canada Council grant to study once again in Mexico where she began to experiment with fibreglass as a medium. She did a mural commission for the Winnipeg Planetarium for Manitoba's Centennial. Greta lost her kiln and art supplies in an fire in 1970 in Toronto but she soon was working on a fibreglass sculpture for Greenblade Junior High School in Mississauga. With the completion of this mural she focused on painting. (2022)

Sylvia Daoust Born May 24,1902, Montréal, Québec. Died July 19, 2004, Montreal, Quebec. In1915-1916 Sylvia studied at Montreal and also studied for her teaching diploma. In 1929 she was awarded a provincial government scholarship to study her art in France. While in Europe she gained a respect and deep interest in religious art carvings for altar-pieces and architectural decorations used in church ceremonies. She returned to Canada to teach at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal and Ville de Québec. In 1944 she became a member of the Sculptor's Society of Canada and in 1951 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. Her liturgical carvings capture drama with grace and simplicity. She is also a talented portrait artist and has completed works in plaster and bronze. Her life-sized bronze sculpture of Nicholas Viel is part of the facade of the Quebec Assemblée Nationale. In 1976 she became a Member of the Order of Canada. Source: Art Publique Montreal Online(2022)

Olea Marion Davis 3809 née Montgomery. Born May 20, 1899, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A. Died April 6,,1977, Vancouver, British Columbia. Olea graduated with a diploma in Physical Education from McGill, University, Montreal. She then studied at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal, the Ontario College of Art, Toronto., the University of British Columbia (U B C) and the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design). In 1926 she married Henry Landerkin Roy Davis (1897-1969)and the couple settled in British Columbia. She created ornamental grills for the at Hotel Vancouver which were installed around the tops of wall and in several large public rooms and halls. The work was completed in time for the Royal Tour of 1939. She also created rosettes which were added to the Pier, B. C. marquee. She founded the Allied Officers Guild in B C during World War (1939-1945). She was the founder and served as the first president ot the B C Potter's Guild in 1955. Here she began teaching at summer schools to student from across North America. In 1978 the Guild created the Olea Davis Memorial Award. She also taught at the University of British Columbia. From 1950 though 1969 she ran the U B C Pottery Hut. She was an active member in both the Canadian Handcrafts Guild and the Canadian Guild of Potters. (2022)

Rosaline Delisle 3811

Ceramic Sculpture Born 1952, Rimouski, Quebec. Died November 12, 2003, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. Rosaline married painter Bruce Cohen and the couple had one daughter. In 1973 she graduated from the Institute of Applied Arts, Montreal. In 1978 she relocated to California, U.S.A. where she opened a studio in Venice. She is best known for her work in ceramics specifically for large scale vessel forms. In 2001 Penny Smith wrote her biography, Rosaline Delisle, Like a Dancer in Ceramics in Art and Perception no 22. Her works are included in the collections s of the Musée des beaux-arts du Québec, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, U.S.A. (2022)

Dora de Pédery-Hunt
Born November 16, 1913, Budapest, Hungary. Died September 29, 2008, Toronto, Ontario. Dora studied at the Royal School for Applied Art graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 1943. A sculptor and designer of medals she came to Canada in 1948. She has been honoured with the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for her works. The Canada Centennial Medal. The Olympic gold coin in 1976 and the Canadian National Arts Centre Medal are among her many artistic achievements. The Ontario College of Art presents an award named in her honour. She has lectured internationally for Art galleries and similar groups. Canadians carry some of her creations with them in the form of Canadian coins with the image of the Queen. Source: Dora de Pédery-Hunt web site (2022)

Shirley Elford née Sinclair. Born 1943. Died November 10, 2011. In 1963 she met and went on to marry Gerry Elford and the couple had 2 daughters. At 23, she received a grant to study glass making in Egypt and celebrated her birthday on the Nile. Shirley attended Dundas Valley School of Art, and after her family set off for high school she set off studying glass-making at the Ontario College of Art and Sheridan College. An artist and creator of unique works in glass she received national acclaim for her new design of the Juno - Canada’s most prestigious music award - for the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She has served as president of the Theatre Aquarius and the Glass Art Association of Canada. She also served as chair of acquisitions for the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario. She was honorary co-chair of Strengthening Hamilton’s Community Initiative. She was a board member of Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation and Hamilton Community Foundation. She has also served as chair of art for the Hamilton Public Library. She has represented Canada on the international Glass Art Society board. In 2001-2006 she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Hamilton Community Foundation. In 2003 she founded the Angel Fund in support of mental health. In 2010 she created the Gift for Today Fund for those experiencing ovarian cancer. The Hamilton Community Foundation presents annually the Shirley Elford Emerging Artist Commission Prize. (2022)

Frances Marie Gage Born August 22, 1924, Windsor, Ontario. Died November 26, 2017, Cobourg, Ontario. During World War ll Frances served as an intelligence officer with the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (Wrens). A year after leaving the services she attended the Ontario College of Art, Toronto graduating in 1951. She went on to study at the Art Student's League of New York, U.S.A. and L'Ecole des beau-arts in Paris, France. Returning to Canada in 1957 she began sculpting. In 1959 she traded one of her works , The Bear, in order to build her own studio on Birch Avenue in Toronto. Her works were exhibited internationally from Colorado, U.S.A., to Finland and London, England. She was over the years often commissioned to complete work by the provincial Government. She also did commissioned pieces for the Women's College Hospital, Toronto. In 1972 she completed The Jenny which commemorated the Wrens.

Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook Born November 7, 1913, Hamilton, Ontario. Died February 23, 2009, Hamilton, Ontario.   While she could draw at an early age it was only when she was in High school that she became cognizant of her artistic spirit. She attended the Ontario College of Art from 1932-1935 where graduated winning the Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Sculpture. She followed up with training spending a year at the Royal College of Art in London England. She married John ‘Jack’ Grant, a dentist on. The couple had 3 children. Elizabeth also studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S.A. in 1948.’Her works include the busts of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Hon. Ellen Fairclough commissioned for the Parliament Buildings. One of her crowning achievements to date has been a bronze bust portrait for St. John's Newfoundland of the late Sir Winston Churchill. She has received numerous medals of honour including one of Ken Taylor encircled in American and Canadian flags. She has received the National Sculpture Society of New York Gold Medal and the accolades of art critics worldwide. She participated in annual exhibitions in the Royal Canadian Academy, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Ontario Society of Artists and Art Gallery of Hamilton. Her work is also in public collections in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa as well as such local venues as the Art Gallery of Hamilton, McMaster University, Royal Botanical Gardens and St John's Church in Ancaster. She was a lecturer at the Dundas Valley School of Art from 1965-1969 at the Burlington, Ontario Cultural Centre from 1990-1993 and at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario from 1995-1999. She was also a gifted equestrian and breeder of New Forest Ponies. In 1977 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth ll Silver Jubilee Medal and in 1987 she was Woman of the Year in the Arts from the City of Hamilton. In 1992 she received the Ontario Society of Arts Award. She also received the 1992 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal. She has been appointed as Fellow with the Ontario College of Art, and in 1997 was inducted into the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada.

Anne Kahane Born March 1, 1926, Vienna, Austria. Anne immigrated to Montreal with her parents when she was 5 years old. It was at the Montreal Ecole des beaux arts that she took her early formal art lessons. This sculptor emigrated from Austria with her parents in 1925. During the mid 1940's Anne studied at Cooper Union School, New York City, U.S.A. In 1953 she was the only Canadian winning international prizes for her3-dimensional figures carved in wood, works. Her woodcarvings are the decorative panels for the Winnipeg airport, Winnipeg General Hospital, and Montreal’s Place des Arts. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, representing Canada at the Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Canadian Pavilion at the Worlds Fair, Brussels, and at Expo 67 in Montreal Abandoning wood in the late 1970's she began to work with sheets of aluminum with her first showing of this new medium at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario in 1980-1982.

Maryon Kantaroff Born November 20, 1933, Toronto, Ontario. Died June 9, 1919, Toronto, Ontario. Maryon studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in art and archaeology. After graduation she worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Returning to school she travelled to London, United Kingdom for her postgraduate studied in American Ethnology at the British Museum. In 1962 her 1st solo exhibition was at the Temple Gallery, London. She returned to Toronto in 1968.This sculptor has had showings of her works in Toronto, Los Angeles, Milan (Italy), and Japan. One of her sculptures was chosen to be installed in the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. She opened and maintained her own foundry for 14 years. Her works have been recognized with awards from the Sculptor's Society of Canada and she was the YMCA Woman of Distinction in 1992. A supporter of the feminist movement she has contributed articles on art and feminists. She is a founding member of the Toronto New Feminists and is a passionate speaker on this subject as well as the subject of art history. While she may be best known for her rather large cast art works she also had created some limited edition jewelry. (2020)

Bylee Fay Lang Born 1908, Didsbury, Alberta. Died 1963. A sculptor of significance she studied art at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and later studied in Munich , Germany. In 1936 she established a private school of sculpture in Winnipeg and in 1939 she joined staff at the Winnipeg School of Art. She transplanted herself to Bermuda where she is remembered for a figure of Christ and the apostles in the Cathedral of Bermuda.

Edith Beatrice 'Bea' Catharine Lennie. Born June 16, 1905*, Nelson, British Columbia. Died June 1, 1987. In 1911 she and her family relocated to Vancouver. Bea began formal art classes in 1925 and was a member of the first graduating class at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts in 1929. That same year she won best costume design at the first Beaux Arts Ball at the Hotel Vancouver. In 1930 she founded and was first president of the P. A. S. O. V. A. S. (Pioneer Arts Students of Vancouver Art School) Club which was concerned with the furtherance of art education. The group held exhibitions at the BC Art League and the Vancouver Art Gallery. She continued her education in art at the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. In 1931 she was elected as a member of the British Columbia Society of Fine arts. By 1933 she was teaching sculpture and modeling at the B C Institute of the Arts. Many of her works were exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Royal Academy of the Arts, The British Columbia Society of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. In 1936 she opened the Beatrice Lennie School of Sculpture. In 1937 she had a solo exhibit with the Picture Loan Society in Toronto. Her work was also displayed at the Art Association of Montreal, at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and with the Sculptor's Society of Canada, Toronto. In 1941 she was a founding member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. * Records of her birth vary from 1904 to 1906.

Marilyn Levine née Hayes. Born December 22, 1935, Medicine Hat, Alberta. Died April 10, 2005. Even though her parents were interested in art, she chose to earn her B.A. in Chemistry at the University of Alberta. Her Masters in Science followed in 1959. That same year she married chemist Sydney Levine and the couple relocated to Regina, Saskatchewan. It was here that she regained an interest in art taking various courses at the University of Saskatchewan. She also taught Chemistry at the Campton College in Regina. After her first solo art showing in 1966, she never looked back and embraced her art career and shortly after moved to California. While in California Marilyn joined the Graduate Sculpture Program at the University of California, Berkley and received a Master of Arts in 1970 and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture in 1971. She returned to the University of Saskatchewan, Regina and taught ceramics and pottery for two years. She left for Utah , Salt Lake City in 1973 and also taught at the University of California. Her works She became internationally acclaimed as a sculptor and artist working with ceramics to create hyper-realistic art that looks like leather or canvas. She created a process that added chopped nylon fibre to a stoneware base for her unique works. Sources: “Marilyn Levine dies at 69…” by Roberta Smith, New York Times April 10, 2005 ; City of Regina. Heritage and History. Online Accessed January 2012.

Frances Norma Loring Born October 14, 1887, Wardner, Idaho U.S.A. Died February 5, 1968, Newmarket, Ontario. Frances studied in Switzerland, Germany, and Paris, as well as in Chicago, New York, and Boston in the U.S.A. It was while she was the Art Institute of Chicago that she met Florence Wyle (1881-1968), another Canadian sculpture who became a lifelong friend and collaborator. She chose to open a studio with Florence in Toronto in 1913 to show her sculptures. During World War l, the Canadian War Records Office commissioned Frances to make sculptures of industrial workers on the home front. Her architectural designs, war memorials and monuments earned her a reputation as one of the 1st women known for her sculptures in Canada. The National Gallery in Ottawa has obtained her works as well as the Art Gallery of Ontario. Some works grace the grounds of the parliament buildings in Ottawa predominantly the statue of Sir Robert Borden. She was co-founder of the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1928. Frances was also active in the Federation of Canadian Artists which was a forerunner to the National Arts Council founded in 1955. The Loring -Wyle Parkette in Toronto is home to two busts, the Loring-by-Wyle and the Wylie-by-Loring.

Anne Lazar Mirvish

née Maklin. Born 1919, Hamilton, Ontario Died September 20, 2013, Toronto, Ontario. In 1940 she married Edwin 'Ed' Mirvish (1914-2007) a businessman who loved Toronto. The couple had one son. They started out with sportswear shop offering affordable cloths for women during World War ll. The business developed into the famous discount store called 'Honest Ed's'. A sculptor in her own rights her works were exhibited in galleries and she maintained a studio in downtown Mirvish Village on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets. She was also an avid art collector. Anne had a love of theatre and opera which she shared with her husband. She encouraged him to save Toronto's historic Royal Alexandra Theatre from demolition in 1963. In 1987 she inspired her husband to launce Mirvish Productions which is considered Canada's largest commercial theatre production company. In 2008 the City of Toronto named a parkette on Bathurst Street Ed and Anne Mirvish Parkette. Source: Obituary online (2022)

Rose Eleanor Milne Born May 14, 1925, St John, New Brunswick. Died May 17, 2014, Ottawa, Ontario. Her primary education was at convents and then she attended Montreal Museum School of Fine Arts. McGill University Laboratory of Anatomy, Montreal, Quebec and then the Central College of Arts and Crafts, London , England. Returning home she attended the L’Ecole des beaux arts, Montreal and then Syracuse University in New York State, U.S.A. She received numerous awards for her artistry including honorary doctorates from 4 universities and the Order of Canada. 1962-to 1993 she was the Dominion Sculptor with works displayed in the halls of the House of Commons, Ottawa. She also designed a stained glass window at the Parliament buildings. . After her retirement as Dominion Sculptor she accepted private commissions and worked with computer art. Source: Obituary, Ottawa Citizen June 6, 2012. Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa, Ontario.

Ellen Neel

Indigenous Artist Born 1916, Albert Bay, Cormorant Island, British Columbia. Died February 1966. Her grandfather Kwakwaka’wakus, was a famous totem pole carver. It was by working at his side when she was young that she gained a love for this art. As a youngster she had actually carved small totem poles for tourists to purchase. Ellen Married Edward Neal and the couple had six children. In 1993 the family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Her husband suffered a stroke and was unable to work so Ellen carved more of her miniature totem poles for tourists. She taught her own children the techniques she had learned from her grandfather. Soon the City of Vancouver provided them with space for a workshop in the famous Stanley Park, In the park Ellen was enticed to restore and carve full-size totem poles. In 1955 she carved a thunderbird totem for Woodward’s Department Stores. Depressed by the accidental death of a son and ill herself she sold her carving tools and family heirlooms. Ellen played a crucial role in establishing Native arts as a viable way for Natives to support their communities and continue their heritage. She had also served as a mentor and role model for future women carvers. In 1985 the University if British Columbia Museum of Anthropology erected one of the totem poles they had commissioned from Ellen Neal in Stanley Park, where it is still on display. The totem pole she donated to the University of British Columbia was recreated by master carvers and rededicated in 2004 with an elaborate ceremony presided over by the Kwakwaka’wakw Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation. Her family tradition handed to her by her grandfather is alive today as Ellen’s grandson, David Neel, is a carver, jeweller, painter, photographer, and author in British Columbia. Source: Herstory: and Canadian Woman’s Calendar. 2012. Coteau Books, 2011

Barbara A. Paterson Born 1936 Edmonton, Alberta. Barbara followed her love of art to earn a diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Alberta. She went on to earn her BA in Fine arts from the same institution. As a sculptor she is perhaps best known for her bronze statue of the Famous Five which was commissioned to honour the Persons Case of 1927. The statue was unveiled by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in Calgary’s Olympic Square on October 18, 1999. A second copy of the monument was unveiled on October 18, 2000 on Parliament Hill, the 1st statue on the Hill dedicated to Canadian Women. The larger of life statue shows the members of the Famous Five group of women, Nellie McClung (1873-1951), Emily Murphy (1868-1933), Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849-1931), Louise McKinney (1868-1931) and Irene Parleby (1868-1965) having tea and looking at the declaration of the ‘persons Case’. Her works have been exhibited from Singapore to New York City, U.S.A. and are held in collections across Canada and abroad. She has also sculpted larger than life statues of Emily Carr in Victoria British Columbia, Father Coady in Antagonist, Nova Scotia and former Alberta Governor General Lois Hole in St Albert, Alberta. In 2000 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Alberta.

Amelia Mildred Ross SEE - Painters

Aiko Geraldine Suzuki
Born 1937, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died December 31, 2005. As a young child she and her family lived in internment camp in British Columbia. Her parents gave their children both North American and Japanese names. In the late 1950’s , Gerry began to mesh her love of art and her family heritage, using the name Aiko. A sculptor, painter, printmaker, dance set designer, curator and teacher, her works are in private and public collections across the country. Her fabric art was a fixture at the Toronto Reference Library from 1981-2004 when the hanging was removed for cleaning. In 1994 she was given the Woman of Distinction Award (arts) from the Toronto YWCA. Always independent and strong, she raised her daughter as a single parent. Even though she suffered constant pain from rheumatoid arthritis, she worked and produced works of great beauty. She worked right to the end of her life, with her last show of her paintings opening the day of her memorial service.

Lucinda Turner 4072

Carver & Social Activist Born 1958, British Columbia. Died July 4, 2022, Vancouver, British Columbia. Lucinda studied art at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver. In 1991 she began working as an apprentice for Nisga'a Master sculptor and carver Norman Tait. The Vancouver Stock Exchange commissioned on one her works , an eagle-and salmon-shape. Lucinda retired when Norman Tait died in 2016. Shortly after retirement she discovered that knock-off copies of Norman Tait's works were being passed as original works and she devoted her time to exposing other false artworks which claimed to be original Indigenous North Coast art. Using social media to help denounce fraudulent works she created a facebook group challenging Indigenous artworks claiming to be originals. She of the fake art works were being mass produced and undercut the works of Indigenous artists. She helped others track down manufacturers of masks, t-shirts, coffee mugs and pillows which used art and designs without permission. Some of these items wiere being shipped into Canada and the U.S. from Indonesia and the Philippines. She earned deep and lasting appreciation as a non-indigenous person working non stop fighting for the interests of First Nation Artists. Lucinda also lobbied the federal government to impose hefty fines for the sale of Indigenous art with a stronger copyright law. Source: Obituary, Vancouver Sun, online (accessed 2022)

Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok

Inuit Artist Born 1934, Nunalla, Manitoba. Died April 12, 2012, Arviat, Nunavut. Lucy began carving in the 1960’s and is best known for multiple head images. In 1960 she married Richard Tutsweetok in Rankin Inlet and the couple settled in Arviat. The images were inspired by a drawing in the sand by her grandfather. She also produced family images of mothers and children and expanded families. She chose her materials carefully and enjoyed the initial shape of the material carving heads and or arms using the natural shape of the stone providing an austere minimalist style. Her sculptures were included in the 1970 Sculpture exhibit for the Centennial of the Northwest Territories. Her works were exhibited nationally and internationally and twice at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa in 1988 and 1992. [2017]

Katherine Elizabeth Wallis Born 1860 or 1861, Merino, Canada West (now Ontario). Died December 14, 1957. Katherine studied art 1st at the Toronto Art School in Ontario and then in Scotland, London, England, and Paris France. It was her that she would come to love sculpting. She moved to Paris and continued her studies. In 1897 her sculptures were on exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, England. Her art career was interrupted during World War 1 when she served as a nurse in the Canadian Hospital in Paris. She was honoured and decorated by both the French and British governments for her services. Her 1st Canadian exhibition of her work was in 1920. She returned to Paris and in 1929 she received her highest recognition as an artist when she was the 1st Canadian to be elected Societaire of the Societé Nationale de Beaux Arts for her sculpture titled "La Lutte pour la Vie". She fled from France at the beginning of World War II and settled in Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A. As well as being a sculptor she also enjoyed painting. . She also enjoyed writing verse and published Chips From the Block: Poems in New York in 1955. She bequeathed her art collection to the City of Peterborough, Ontario and it is housed in the Peterborough Museum and Archives. (2019)

Lauren Waters
Born 1960, Mississauga, Ontario. Growing up she learned to love and respect nature while on long walks in the woods with her Dad. She studied at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and went on to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver to study forestry. She became a registered professional forester. In 2001 she began courses at Selkirk College in British Columbia in fine wood working. While still a student, one of her projects won the National Furniture Design Completion in Toronto. She now runs her own shop in Revelstoke, British Columbia featuring unique furniture. She has helped to organize a community woodworking studio to share her knowledge and skills. She has also worked with municipal officials to develop an urban forestry plan. In 2006 she was names Woodworker of the year for the Canadian Workshop Magazine, the 1st woman to earn this accolade. . Source: Herstory: The Canadian Women's calendar. 2008 (Saskatoon Women's Calendar Collective / Coteau Books, 2007)

Colette Whiten Born February 7, 1945, Birmingham, England. In 1972 this author won the Governor General's Medal when she graduated from the Ontario College of Art. Her works have been exhibited across Canada and the U.S.A. as well as Europe and Brazil. She teaches at the Ontario College of art and was a teacher at York University in Toronto. Her commissioned sculptures have included a wall construction with figurative cutouts for the Mental Health centre in 1978, the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Weathervanes or the Bankers Hall in Calgary in 1991 and Tender at the Workman's Compensation Office in Toronto.

Irene F. Whittome Born March 6, 1942, Vancouver, British Columbia. After her early studies at the Vancouver School of Art in British Columbia she went on study in Paris France where she chose etchings as her 1st major form of artistic expression. Returning to Canada she attended Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.   By 1975 she had produced a series of sculptures and went on to use the medium of hand made paper relief and sculptures to produce several one-woman shows in many Canadian galleries and museums. Her modern works continue to receive acclaim and awards, including the Victor-Martyn-Staunton Award in 1991. In 1992, she received an award from the Gershon-Iskowitz Foundation. In 1997 she was awarded Québec's Prix Paul Émile Borduas and in 2002 she received a Governor General's Visual and Media Arts Award. in 2005 she became an officer in the Order of Canada. (2017)

Elizabeth Wyn Wood Born October 8, 1903, Orillia, Ontario. Died January 27, 1966, Toronto, Ontario. Elizabeth graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1925. As a sculptor she became involved with the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Canadian Arts Council. She worked in “modern” materials like tin for her sculptures. in 1944 she was the founding secretary of the Canadian Arts Council and from 1945 through 1948 she served as chair of the International Relations Committee Her large pieces may be seen in a parks in Welland in the Welland-Crowland War Memorial dedicated in 1939. In 1962 she created bas-relief sculptures at Ryerson University in Toronto. In Niagara Falls a monument of King George VI was unveiled in 1963. In 1966 she was inducted into the Orillia Hall of Fame.

Florence Norma Wyle       Born November 24, 1881, Trenton, Illinois, U.S.A.. Died January 14,1968, Newmarket, Ontario. Originally Florence wanted to be a doctor and she entered the University of Illinois in Urbana. She became fascinated with the human anatomy. In 1903 she entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois to study clay modeling. Here she studied under Frances Loring (1887-1968). Florence would become partners with Frances Loring setting in 1909 in New York City and in Toronto, Ontario in 1913. In 1920, Loring and Wyle moved into an old abandoned church. This location became their home and their studio. It also became a gathering place for Toronto's artistic community and the headquarters of the Sculptors' Society of Canada (SSC). She was a co-founder member of the Sculptor's Society of Canada in 1928. She was the 1st woman sculptor to become a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Her work was often exhibited by the Women's Art Association of Canada. She worked on numerous Canadian War Memorials for WW 1. Much of her work was cast in Bronze, but she also carved stone, marble and wood. in 1953 she was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth ll Coronation Medal. She had a love of nature that was reflected in her two volumes of published poems. In 2000 the Canadian Portrait Academy made Wyle an Honorary Academician naming her one of the Top 100 Artists of the 20th Century. (2019)

Tapestry and Textile Art     Return to categories

Micheline Beauchemin

Born October 24, 1930, Longueil, Quebec. Died September 29, 2009, Quebec City, Quebec. Micheline studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Montreal prior to attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Académie de la Grande Chaumére, Paris, France. Her 1st work was in stained glass and in 1953 she had a show in Chartres, France of her stained glass work. In 1955 she exhibited her 1st tapestries at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Chartres, France. In 1957 she returned home to Canada. She designed and made the stage curtain of the National Arts Centre, Ottawa in the late 1960's. She also was commissioned to create works for Queen's Park, Toronto, York University, Toronto, the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg, and the Pearson International Airport, Toronto. In 1970 she created a tapestry for display at the Canadian Pavilion at the Osaka, Japan, World's Fair. She is considered one of Canada's foremost tapestry weavers. In 1970 she became an elected member of the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1973 she was names an Officer in the Order of Canada. In 1991 she was inducted as Knight of the National Order of Quebec. In 2005 she received the Prix Paul-Emile-Borduas from the Quebec Government. In 2006 she earned the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Some of her works reside in the collections of the Place des Arts, Montreal, the National Arts Center, Ottawa, and internationally in Tokyo, and San Francisco, U.S.A..

Helen Frances Gregor née Lorenz. Born June 28, 1921, Prague, Czechoslovakia. Died May 25, 1989, Seoul, South Korea. In 1940 she and her family relocated to England to escape the events of World War ll. Helen studied art at Newark Technical College, Birmingham College of art and the Royal College of Art, London. She married Tibor Gregor (d 2008) and the couple had two children. The family moved to Canada and she worked as a teacher at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto. In 1952 she helped establish served as Head of the Textile Department. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the Ontario Society of Artists, and the Ontario Crafts Council. She won Ontario Crafts Council's Mather Award in 1982. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1987. the same year her book, The Fabric of My Life: Reflections of Helen Frances Gregor, was published. The Ontario Crafts Council established the Helen Frances Gregor scholarship in her honour. (2019)

Tamara Joworska 4006 Born 1926, Archangielsk, Russia. Died October 29, 2015, Toronto, Ontario. Tamara graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Poland in 1950. Two years later she graduated with a Master of Fine Art from the Faculty of Design and Weaving, from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland. In her works she often uses a Medieval French weaving gobelin technique. Tamara immigrated to Canada in 1969. In 1974 when Unity, a competition winning tapestry was installed in Place Bell, Ottawa, using a crane because it was so large and heavy. In 1993 she was given the Governor General's Commemorative Medal and inducted to the Order of Canadian 1994. Her works have earned gold medals in Milan, Italy and New York City, U.S.A. She has had showings of her art across North America and Europe and in her home country of Russia. In 2002 she was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth ll Golden Jubilee Medal. Some of her art is held at the National Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia, the Central Museum of Textile Arts, Lodz, Poland, the Scottish Art Institute, Galashiels, United Kingdom as well as other public and private collections. Source: Obituaries Fibre artist was a cultural treasure by Susan Ferrier MacKay. Globe and Mail November 23, 2015.

Visual Artists      Return to categories

Barbara Astman Born July 12, 1950, Rochester, New York U.S.A. Barbara earned an Associate Degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Craftsmen. In 1970 she relocated to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of are graduating with an Associate Degree. In 1975 she joined the faculty of the Ontario College of Art (O C A D University). In 1977 she began the Colour Xerox Artist's Program at Visual Art Ontario. As a photographer and multimedia artist, she is fascinated by current technological developments, which she mixes with a variety of traditional art forms. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Art Gallery at Harbourfront, now called Power Point, from 1983-1985. She has also served on the Boards of the City of Toronto Public Art Commission and the curatorial Team for the International Water Works Exhibition. Her works have been installed at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1987, at the Canadian Embassy, Berlin, Germany. She is in the forefront of post-modern art activity. In 2000 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy. (2018)

Patricia Bates née Martin. Born June 25, 1927 Saint John, New Brunswick. Patricia's artistic talents were recognized while she was quite young and she was given formal private studies in art when she was just 12. She went on to study at the Academie Royale des beaus-arts, the royal Academy of fine arts in Belgium at the Sorbonne, Paris, France and the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, U.S.A. A highly innovative artist, she brought imagination to her artistic prints. Some of her works are two sided! She is primarily known for her printmaking and her embossing techniques. She limits her colours to black, white, and silver and is inspired by the art of the Islamic Middle East and Zen Buddhists. In the 1960's she became known for her Plexiglas cube sculptures. She taught from 1965 at the University of Victoria, British Columbia where she became a full professor in 1977. That same year she was presented the Queen Elizabeth ll Silver Jubilee Medal. She has also earned the Zachenta Medal from Poland and the International Print Art of Norway Gold Medal. She had exhibited her works in China, Chile, Yugoslavia. Poland, Great Britain, Norway, Japan, France, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austral is and the United States.   The Pat Martin Bates Scholarship in Visual Arts was established by Canadian Federation of University Women of Victoria. Her biography has been written by Patricia Bovey, Pat Martin Bates: Balancing on a Thread.

Sylvie Bélanger   3941 Born May 8, 1951, Le Gardeur, Quebec. Died October 8, 2020, Montreal, Quebec. Sylvie earned her Bachelor of Arts in philosophy of religion from Université de Montréal and went on to earn a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. She then received a Masters in Fine Arts from York University, Toronto. Sylvie was an interdisciplinary artist using sound, video, photography, and installation. She lived and worked in Toronto as an Associate Professor of Visual Studies at S U N Y , Buffalo, New York, U.S.A. Her works have been exhibited across North America, France, Germany, Spain, England, The Netherlands, and Japan. In 2002 she created a commissioned work at the Bessarion subway station in Toronto. She retired in 2017 and returned to live in Montreal. (2022)

Rebecca Belmore

Indigenous Artist Born March 22, 1960, Upsala, Ontario. As a youth she spent her summers with her grandparents where she was taught traditions of the Ojibwe peoples such as harvesting native foods from the land. As a teen she was sent to school in Thunder Bay, Ontario where she lived with a non-Native family and experiences culture loss. Rebecca attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto in 1988. In 2005 she was the 1st Aboriginal woman to resent Canada at the Venice Biennale an International Art Exhibition. She has presented work in biennial exhibitions nationally and internationally throughout her career. Her art addresses history, voice and voicelessness, place, and identity. In 2004 she completed a residency with the Mentoring Artists for Women's Art, Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2013 she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. In 2016 she received the Gershon Iskowitz Prize which raises the awareness of the visual arts in Canada. (2019)

Diana Zoe Coop Born April 9, 1952, Chicago Illinois, U.S.A.. She earned her fine arts degree at the University of Manitoba in 1972 and then was off to England for post graduate studies and took her masters in fine art at Syracuse University. She has designed many of the colourful street banners that have graced the streets of Vancouver. She has had exhibits of her works across Canada. She is also an enthusiastic supporter of Rhythmic Gymnastics and is a Canadian National Judge in the sport. She enjoys a hobby of designing a painting costumes for competitors in the sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics and has produced costumes for groups in the Olympic Games and world championships.

Vera Cryderman
née Macintyre Born 1897,Dutton, Ontario. Died November 19, 1969. Known by the nickname “Mackie” She was trained in commercial art and interior decorating in both Winnipeg, Manitoba and Detroit Michigan, U.S.A. In 1927 she established the first art department for high schools in London, Ontario. The school was the first to use plastic as a medium for art projects. She set up courses in stone cutting and polishing to produce fine jewellery. In 1962 she set up and supervised the Visual Arts Department at Fanshaw College in London. Not only did she design unusual jewellery, she loved rings, but she also designed and made her own furniture. She is also known for her fine water colour paintings and prints.

Jennifer Dickson Born September 17, 1936, Piet Retief, South Africa. She studied art at Goldsmiths College at the University of London, England and Atelier 17 in Paris, France. She earned the Prix de jeunes artistes pour gravure in 1962   She has lived in England, France, Jamaica and the United States before 1969 when she immigrated to Canada settling at first in Montreal, Quebec. She soon was deeply involved with the local artist community and in 1976 she was elected as a Royal Academician, which consists of 80 practicing artists elected by the General Assembly of the Royal Academy. She relocated to Ottawa, Ontario in 1974 and joined the faculty of the University of Ottawa. In 1980 she was awarded the Biennale Prize of the fifth Norwegian International Print Biennale. She has also been a guest lecturer at 9 universities in the U.S.A. Traveling the world she is known for her photographs of natural and manmade landscapes. She is known for her printmaking techniques combining silkscreen, etching, aquatint and collograph. In 1988 her book, the Hospital for Wounded Angels was chosen by the Association of Canadian Publishers to represent Canada at the London Book Fare. In 1995 she was inducted as a Member in the Order of Canada. In April 2002 her works considered to have national significance were deposited in the National Archives of Canada.

Francoise Desrochers-Drolet Born 1921, Beauport, Quebec. Died 1998, Beauport, Quebec. In 1942 she attended the L’Ecole des beaux-arts de Quebec. In 1948 she traveled to France and Italy to learn more of ceramics and enameling. In Canada she became a pioneer of enameling as an art. In 1949 she took additional courses from L’Ecole des Beaux-arts de Quebec and opened her own studio. In 1951 she had a sols exhibition of her works. In 1954 she earned a prize in the Decorative Arts category from the Province of Quebec. She married Jean Paul Drolet. Source: Canadian Women Artists Initiative. Accessed September 2014

Vera Frenkel
Born November 10, 1938, Bratazalava, Czechoslovakia. Her family 1st settled in England prior to Vera find her way to Canada. Vera holds a degree in Fine Arts from McGill University, Montreal. Since the early 1970's she has shown her works in group and solo exhibitions. including exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A. and the Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. She is recognized internationally for her artistic prints and sculptures. Since 1974 she has experimented with video as an artistic medium writing and producing notable works. She is an innovative teacher and has published her poetry illustrated with her own artwork. In 1989 she received the Canada Council Molson Prize and in 1993 the Gershon Iskowitz Prize. This was followed in 1994 with the Toronto Arts Foundation Visual Arts Award. That same year she co-authored Vera-Frenkel: From the Transit Bar =--du transitbar. In 2005 she earned the Governor General's Awards in Visual Media Arts. In 2007 she received the iDMAa Pioneering Achievement Award.

Ydessa Hendeles

Artist-curator Born December 27,1948, Marburg, Germany. Ydessa's parents were survivors of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, Germany. Once they were liberated they settled in Marburg, Germany prior to immigrating to Canada in 1951. Jacob Hendeles sent up an profitable real estate business in Toronto, Ontario. Ydessa graduated from the University of Toronto. Later she attended the New School of Art, the Toronto Art Therapy Institute, and earned a PhD cum laude from The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Ydessa set up the Ydessa Gallery in 1980 where she presented works of Canadian contemporary artists. Closing the Gallery in 1988 she established a nonprofit art foundation in an old factory on King Street West in downtown Toronto providing a large exhibition space for contemporary art including some of her own works. For over 25 years she curated exhibitions before closing the doors of the gallery in 2012 but continues her support for artists. In 1998 she was inducted into the Order of Ontario and became a Fellow of the Ontario College of Art and Design. In 2002 she received a Governor General's Award and received the Queen Elizabeth ll Golden Jubilee Medal. Ydessa received the 2004 "Founders Achievement Award," presented by the Toronto Friends of the Visual Art and the 2003 "Award of Distinction," from the Toronto International Art Fair. In 2007, she was named a Life Member of Art Metropole, Toronto In 2009 she received an Award of Distinction from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, Montreal. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal. (2019)

Mandy Kerlann
née Harmunderjit Kaur Brar. Born 1959, India. Mandy arrived to live on the west coast of Canada with her family when she was 9 years old and adopted the name Mandy. She excelled in studying sciences at the University of British Columbia. Long fascinated with France and things French she and her husband Hervé now live with their two children in a castle in France. She enjoys working with fine textiles embroidering bed, table and bath linens out of company workshop near Beaune, France where she and her staff prepare custom works. Some of her works have been featured in Architecture Digest and have been showcased in centres such as New York City. Her clientele includes the Royal family of Jordan, supermodels and wealthy entrepreneurs around the globe. Source: Dream (job) weaver by Peter O’Neil, Ottawa Citizen Saturday June 7, 2008 pg. B8

Suzy Lake Born June 24, 1947, Detroit, Michigan. Suzy studied fine arts at Wayne State University in Detroit and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A. in the 1960's and became involved in the anti-war and civil rights movements.. She was in Detroit during the Race riots of 1967 which rocked the city to the core. After graduating she immigrated to Canada with her husband to escape the draft for the war in Viet Nam. She would return to university graduating from Concordia in Montreal with a Master's Degree in 1980. Suzy is best known for using a range of media from costumes, self portrait photographs, video and performance exploring identity, beauty, gender and aging. From 1969 through 1978 she taught at the Montreal Museum School. She was co-founder with twelve colleagues in the Véhicule Art Inc. In 2014 her works were shown for a year at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2016 she received the Scotiabank Photography Award which led to additions shows in Toronto. It was in 2016 that Suzy won the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Her works have also been showed across North America and Europe. (2019)

Monique Martin SEE - Academics and Librarians -Educators

Shani Mootoo SEE - Writers - Authors

Joyce Wieland Born June 30, 1931, Toronto, Ontario. Died June 27, 1998, Toronto, Ontario. This artist had her 1st exhibition in 1960. She went to New York City in 1962 for nine years with her husband, Michael Snow, and experimented with films. She took her inspiration from Canadian history, politics, and ecology. Her artistic works covered a multitude of media from canvas, quilting, and embroidery to film. Her works came in all sizes from large murals to a commissioned Canada Post World Health postage stamp in issued in 1972. While she exhibited her works all over the world in 1971 she became the 1st living Canadian woman artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada. In 1982 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. In the spring of 1987 the Art Gallery of Ontario mounted a major travelling exhibit of Joyce's works which was its 1st retrospective of a living Canadian woman. That fall she received a Visual Arts Award from Toronto Arts Foundation. In 1987 a documentary about Joyce, Artist on Fire. was released. (2020)

Jin-Me Yoon

Asian Canadian Artist Born 1960, South Korea. She immigrated with her family to Canada in 1968. Jin-Me earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1985 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1992 she earned a Master's in Fine Art from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. She teaches Contemporary Art at Simon Fraser University's School for Contemporary Arts. Jin-Me works in mixed media incorporating photography, video and performance in her efforts. She has gained international recognition with her work having been shown across Canada, Europe, Korea, China, and New Zealand. (2019)

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