Virginia Erskine Luz
(1911 - 2005)

Born in Toronto, Ontario, she received encouragement to study art (after finishing high school) from her mother who was a painter in her own right. She entered the Central Technical School, Toronto, in 1929 and studied under Peter Haworth, Dawson Kennedy, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Carl Shaeffer, Charles Goldhamer and Robert Ross. She graduated from Central Tech in 1932. For six years she worked in Toronto as a commercial artist then took a post graduate course at the McClain Art Institute in New York City.

On return to Toronto she became an instructor of illustration and fashion drawing at the Central Technical School (1940). Through a Toronto artist, Ethel Curry, she became interested in landscape painting in oils of Northern Ontario and the Atlantic Coast. Subsequently, she sketched with Doris McCarthy, the Haworths, Jocelyn Taylor and others.

In 1950-51 she travelled in Europe with Doris McCarthy. During this trip she painted mainly in water colours which she found more suitable. She became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1953 and of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, 1960. Her early work was influences by artists like LAC Panton, members of the Group of Seven and some of her artists friends. In later years she turned to abstract and non-objective painting while maintaining her interest in realistic painting. Over the years, she has been a regular exhibitor with major Canadian societies; the Canadian Women Artists Show, NYC and Canada; Hamilton Annual Winter Exhibition, CNE; Three Women Painters London Art Museum; and others. She is represented in the collections of the London Art Museum; Huron College, London, ON; Department of External Affairs; JS McLean and in several schools.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977