BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Madge Grace Jean Farmer (Miss)
(m John MacPherson Gray)

c1909 -

Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (Diploma 1930)
PASOVAS
Vancouver School of Art Graduates' Association


Madge Farmer was born in West Vancouver. She was an early graduate from the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, receiving her diploma in 1930.

She exhibited with the PASOVAS group in 1932, and possibly other shows.

In 1933 she had a studio at 1087 Bute Street, along with a number of other artists and art teachers.

The Spring 1936 edition of The Smock Pocket, the Vancouver School of Art Graduates' Association newsletter, noted that she "is the Art Teacher at the Kamloops Junior High School."

BC Vital Statistics lists Farmer's marriage to John Gray on June 23 1938, both bride and groom noted as living in Kamloops. Unusually, the marriage certificate also notes "Marriage dissolved at Vancouver, B.C. on April 14, 1939" which is not even a year later.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1932 Sept. 17 - 30 PASOVAS   Club Exhibition "Up the Rock" (pen sketch)
"Desolation" (pen sketch)
"View from Emerald Lake" (Water colour on wood)
"Arbutus"
"Phil" (pencil sketch)

References

CITY & PROVINCIAL DIRECTORIES 1933 (refer to DIR)

B.C. VITAL STATISTICS ON-LINE marriage (refer to BCVS)

Clippings

"Winners of scholarships were: ... First year students: Vancouver Exhibition Association, $50, Miss Madge Farmer, Miss Ruby Cook, $25; B.C. Society of Fine Arts, $25, Miss Alice Sharpe."
      From "Prizes Presented to Art Students"
      unknown newspaper, June 1927

"Other contributors include: ... Madge Farmer ...
      From "The Paint Box Is Annual of Vancouver Art School"
      unknown newspaper, June 1927

"Madge Farmer's "View from Emerald Lake" would make a capital poster but her arbutus trees in No. 50 are simply not arbutus trees at all."
      From "The Note Book" by Julia W. Henshaw
      Vancouver Sun, October 1 1932

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