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Florence Vale, Canadian artist, was born on April 18, 1909 in llford, Essex, England and died on July 23, 2003 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her family immigrated to Toronto two years after her birth, where she grew up with an interest in music. She married artist Albert Franck on June 8, 1929, and together they bought a house on Hazelton Avenue in Toronto which became a centre for artists, writers, musicians, and critics. Florence Vale was the mother of two children, Trudy (who died as an infant) and Anneke.
Florence Vale began to paint with her husband’s paints and brushes in the late 1940’s with no previous artistic training-only what she had learned under the influence of her husband and the artists who visited her home. Her art was influenced by Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism, and the works of Paul Klee. After her husband’s death in 1973, Florence Vale continued to express her artistic ability with oil paints, collages, and ink, also including her own poetry in some of her works. Many of her works, most prominently after the death of her husband, were erotic, while still viewed by critics as keeping a whimsical, innocent tone. Her art appeared in exhibitions throughout Ontario, with exhibitions also in Quebec and New York, U.S.A. She was associated with the Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto.

Frederick Horsman Varley, painter, was born in Sheffield, England in 1881. He studied at the Sheffield School of Art 1892–1900, and at the Koninklijk Akademie voor Shone Kunsten (Académie royale des beaux-arts) in Antwerp for the following two years. After working as an illustrator and art teacher in England, he immigrated to Canada and obtained work as a commercial illustrator in Toronto in 1912, the same year he first exhibited his art work at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1914, Varley joined Tom Thomson, A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer on sketching trip to Algonquin Park in Ontario. Some of his most famous works resulted from his association with these artists. He participated in the War Art program after the war in 1918 and was a founding member of the Group of Seven in 1920. Although he painted numerous landscapes, his interest lay more in portraiture, which he pursued during the 1920s. Varley moved to Vancouver in 1926 to teach at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts. His landscapes from this period are marked by fine draftsmanship, exotic colour and unusual vantage points. In 1933 he and J.W.G. Macdonald opened their own school, the British Columbia College of Arts, which closed in 1935. Varley lived subsequently in Ottawa and Montreal, returning in 1944 to Toronto. The Art Gallery of Ontario held a retrospective of his work in 1954. He died in Toronto in 1969. Varley was a member of the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto. His work is in numerous Canadian public collections.

Colette Whiten (Birmingham, England 1945- ) is a Toronto-based sculptor and educator.

Elizabeth Fraser Williamson (1914-2000) was a sculptor and educator who worked as artist in residence for many years at the Guild Inn, Scarborough.

‘Scottie’ Wilson (1888-1972) was born Louis Freeman in Glasgow, Scotland. He stayed in Canada ca. 1932-1945 and then lived in England. He was associated with Douglas Duncan and the Picture Loan Society chiefly during 1942-1945 and corresponded with Norman Endicott up to the time of his death in London at the age of 84.

Winsom (1946 - ) is a prominent Canadian-Jamaican Maroon multi-media artist, activist, arts educator and mentor to young people. She was born in Jamaica and studied at the Jamaica School of Art (1965-1968) in Kingston (now the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts), where she majored in mural painting. She moved to Canada in 1969 and was based predominantly in Hamilton, Kingston, and Toronto. From 2004 to 2022 Winsom was based in both Canada and Belize, and since 2022 has been based in the GTA.

Winsom’s work is known for spiritual symbolism, particularly reflecting Yoruba and Arawak traditions, and for the use of multiple media including painting, textiles, sculpture and video. Her practice, especially her work with textiles, is influenced by her travels and studies across Ghana and West Africa, where she worked with master dryers and Adrinka printers. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, including the United States and the Caribbean. In 1989 she participated in Black Wimmin: When and Where We Enter, the first Canadian exhibition to feature only the work of Black women artists and to be curated solely by Black women curators. Some of her solo exhibitions include Jumping the Big Boa at the Image Factory Gallery in Belize, The Masks We Wear at the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery at Queen’s University in Kingston, and Winsom: I Rise at the AGO. She has also been involved with several theatre and dance productions as a designer and artist, predominantly with the Nightwood Theatre in Toronto.

In addition to her work as an artist, Winsom has made significant contributions to the arts community as a dedicated and longtime teacher, mentor, and activist. She has taught in schools, workshops, festivals, and other settings to students of all ages. In 1992, Winsom was a founding member and instructor with the Fresh Arts collective, which established programs for Black youth in Toronto to receive mentorship in the arts, including dance, music, and visual arts. She was also a founding member of the Draw It Black Artist’s Collective (DIBAC), a not-for-profit group launched in 2000 that was dedicated to promoting the work of African Canadian artists. Winsom is the Founder and Director of the Winsom Foundation, a Belize-based non-profit organization established in 2007. Through this foundation she supports arts education for young people in the Cristo Rey Village area, through programs such as an after-school arts club. Winsom has worked with many education and community-oriented organizations as an educator and artist, including the YMCA and the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO. She has frequently shared her knowledge and expertise through presentations, panel talks, and other speaking engagements.

Winsom has been recognized with several awards, including an Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD) in 2015, the Marilyn Lastman Award from the City of Toronto Arts Foundation in 2002, and a Canada Council Visual Arts “A” Grant in 2003. Her long career as an artist and activist has had tremendous impact on subsequent generations of artists.

William John Wood (1877-1954) was a Canadian artist known for simple genre paintings and for his friendship with members of the Group of Seven. He studied briefly at the Ontario College of Art, and lived in Orillia and Midland, Ontario, among other places.

Mary E. Wrinch (Kirby-le-Soken Essex, England, 1877 - Toronto, Ontario, 1969) was a Canadian painter and printmaker.

Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968) were Canadian sculptors. Frances Loring was born in Wardner, Idaho. She studied art in Europe as well as Chicago, Boston, and New York. Florence Wyle was born in Trenton, Illinois, and studied medicine at the University of Illinois and then art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later taught classes. She then worked in New York where she shared a studio with Frances Loring. Loring and Wyle moved to Toronto in 1912, and in 1920 bought an old church and converted it into a studio. Loring and Wyle were both active in Canadian art movements and were founding members of the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1928. Their work can be seen at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Art Gallery of Toronto, and in the streets of Toronto on such buildings as the Toronto General Hospital and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, and on memorials in small towns in Ontario, New Brunswick and Maine.

Maud Eleanor Yarker (1867-1912) was a Canadian painter who was born in the province of Ontario and lived in the Toronto area. She died in Toronto (in the former York, Ont.) in 1912.