BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Mrs. Olive Allen Biller
(nee Allen, m John Biller)

October 17 1879 - October 15 1957

Island Arts and Crafts Society
Little Theatre Association


Mrs. Olive Allen Biller was born in Ormskirk, England. She studied at the Liverpool University Department, and the Slade School and Lambeth School of Art in London. She was married in Canada in 1912 to John Biller of London, England, who was killed at Sanctuary Wood during the First World War.

Mrs. Biller spent the First World War in England, and returned to Canada in 1919, where she lived on James Island for years, then in Vancouver. She was a writer and illustrator of children's books.

She exhibited with the Island Arts and Crafts Society between 1928 and 1933.

She showed work in the B.C. Artists Christmas exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1933 and 1935, and in the Tenth Annual in 1941.

She exhibited artwork in a number of the B.C. Artists exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

A large fond from her estate has been placed in the University of British Columbia Special Collections. Jaleen Grove (q.v.) compiled a biography of Biller as part of the work for her Master's related to Canadian illustrators.

B.C. Vital Statistics on-line lists Olive Biller, died in Vancouver October 15, 1957 at the age of 77.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1932 Oct. 5 - 30 VAG   B.C. Artists 1st Annual Up the Airy Mountain
1933 Mar. 3 - 15 VAG   IACS Vancouver Island Exhibition The Dryad of the Dogwood Tree
A Cure for Warts
Better a Dinner of Herbs
1933 Dec. 1 - 17 VAG   B.C. Artists Christmas Exhibition Cure for Warts
Cure for Ague
Cure for Rickets
1935 Sept. 20 - Oct. 15 VAG   B.C. Artists 4th Annual The Mountains
Black Monday
1935 Nov. 22 - Dec. 8 VAG   B.C. Artists Christmas Exhibition Babes in Stanley Park
Cure for Warts
1938 Sept. 16 - Oct. 9 VAG   B.C. Artists 7th Annual Whytecliffe
1939 Sept. 15 - Oct. 8 VAG   B.C. Artists 8th Annual The Sister Oaks
1940 Sept. 20 - Oct. 13 VAG   B.C. Artists 9th Annual Spring in the Uplands
1941 Sept. 26 - Oct. 19 VAG   B.C. Artists 10th Annual Shell Island
1942 Sept. 25 - Oct. 18 VAG   B.C. Artists 11th Annual Saanich Farm
1945 Sept. 22 - Oct. 21 VAG   B.C. Artists 14th Annual Oak Bay
Sand Spit, Sidney Island
1946 Sept. 21 - Oct. 13 VAG   B.C. Artists 15th Annual Pixie Doll
1947 Sept. 20 - Oct. 12 VAG   B.C. Artists 16th Annual Oak Bay
1948 Sept. 18 - Oct. 10 VAG   B.C. Artists 17th Annual Tatoosh
Over the Hill

References

WHO'S WHO IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1937-38-39
      A Record of British Columbia Men and Women of Today
      S. Maurice Carter Editor & Publisher
      Copyright 1939, printed by The Robson Printers, Vancouver B.C.
      208 pages, hardcover; name index (8 pages), biographies (196 pages), obits. (4 pages)
      Includes reference to Biller

ISLAND ARTS AND CRAFTS SOCIETY - List of Exhibitors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Biller

Catalogue Raisonne of Olive Allen Biller
      By Jaleen Grove, January 2007 (draft)
      Extensive 98-page catalogue and biography

Clippings

"Olive Allen Biller has three quaint water color illustrations which might be used for a doctor's office - or for a nursery. They are "Cure for Warts," "Cure for Ague," and "Cure for Rickets."
      From "Bargains in Art" by D.S.M.
      Vancouver Sun, December 1 1933

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