Crocuses by Verna Viola Depew

Born in Stoney Creek, Ontario, she won a prize at a local fair at the age of ten. During her training as a teacher she studied summers at the Ontario College of Art and at graduation in 1915 became an art teacher for the Hamilton public schools, teaching at the Memorial Public School for 24 years, and later working as Supervisor for nine years. She continued her studies under G. A. Reid, and J. R. Seavey who taught at Hamilton and Cleveland School of Art in 1923, also under Leonard Hutchinson in colour block printing, 1932-40.

She was principally a landscape painter but also did floral studies. She worked in oils, colour blocks by using linoleum glued to masonite, mainly in a simplified realistic style. Her better known prints include: Edge of the North; Sumac and Pine; Red Vine and Buttonwood Tree; Trilliums (won gold medal in 1938 at Hamilton Graphic exhibit); Peonies; Nasturtiums (shown at World’s Fair, 1937); Red Trilliums; Honeysuckle; Tiger Lilies and Nicotiana (Print of the Year, C.P.E., 1956). William Colgate noted her work in this medium.

She is represented in the Art Gallery of Hamilton; London Art Museum and University of Western Ontario. She was a member of the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers & Engravers; Women’s Art Association of Hamilton; Art Gallery Association of Hamilton. She resigned from the Canadian Society of Graphic Art because of her heavy teaching obligations. She lived in Hamilton.

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