Irene Hoffar Reid
born 1908 in Vancouver BC – 1994 in Vancouver BC
Irene Hoffar Reid attended the first class offered at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, studying first with Charles H. Scott and then with Frederick Varley, who was introducing trends in art from eastern Canada and Europe to his students in Vancouver. She then took post graduate studies at the School before travelling to England with her friend, the artist Vera Wetherbie. Studying at the Royal Academy Schools of Painting and Sculpture in London, Reid became overwhelmed by “the great works of art that were so easily seen in galleries and museums. I then realised the isolation of artists in BC.” Returning to Canada she opened a studio where she did portraits, landscape paintings, murals and decorative panels. She joined the staff of the Vancouver School of Art as instructor in drawing and painting. In her portraits one can see the influence of F.H. Varley. She was active with the B.C. Society of Artists and was president from 1965-1967; the Canadian Group of Painters, President in 1958, 1960 and from 1966-67. Her awards are many including: Beatrice Stone Medal for Black & White Drawing at the B.C. Artists Annual (1940); Canadian Centennial Medal awarded for her services rendered to Canada in the arts. Her solo shows include: Avalles Gallery, Van. (1970); New Westminster Public Library ; Unitarian Church, Vancouver; Community Arts Council of North Vancouver. She is represented in the Vancouver Art Gallery and is in many private collections throughout the world. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in London, Windsor, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, Vancouver and in the U.S.A. Reid had two children in the early 1940s. Along with “domestic demands and long periods of drawing,” motherhood shifted her artistic practice. She began to work smaller and concentrated more on depicting her immediate surroundings. She still managed to exhibit her work at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Seattle Art Museum, as well as smaller commercial galleries in Vancouver. In 1940, Reid received the prestigious Beatrice Stone Bronze award for her drawing The Valley, and in the 1960s she was awarded the Centennial Medal for Service to the Nation in the Arts.
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/pdfs/Canadian%20Women%20Modernists%20Guide.pdf
http://www.pegasusgallery.ca/artist/Irene_Hoffar_Reid.html

Doris Colquhoun Holmes
1892 in England – 1958 in Victoria BC
An interior decorator to some of Victoria's most prominent citizens, Doris Holmes supervised every aspect of a home's furnishings, from wall colour to furniture, to pictures. After attending Victoria College, Holmes took a one-year decorating course in New York. She then returned to Victoria and worked for Spencer's store (which later became the T. Eaton Company) where, in 1920, she became assistant to the interior decorator. She becamean interior decorator herself and continued in this position for over 30 years. Although she favoured period furniture, she also worked with more modern designs.
From: Canadian Women Artists: Artist Database
http://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=146