​Jessie Redd Ursenbach (1895–1987) was a southern Alberta artist and educator, born in New Harmony, Utah, who settled in Alberta in 1905. She studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts, including a month-long Carnegie Corporation scholarship in 1937, and also attended classes at the Ontario College of Art. Active in the Alberta Society of Artists, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the Lethbridge Sketch Club, Ursenbach played an important role in art education across southern Alberta, teaching in both schools and private settings. Although exposed to modernist ideas, she favored realistic depictions of landscapes, townscapes, and floral subjects, and her work is represented in public and private collections across Canada.

​Jeanette Loue Walker (1929–2015) was an Alberta-based multidisciplinary artist whose work encompassed intaglio printmaking, painting, photography, and pottery. An early feminist, she drew deeply on her Alberta heritage and her long residence in Lacombe to explore women’s experiences and social history through art. Walker is best known for her 1978 intaglio series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Persons Case, which toured nationally in The Human Condition exhibition and remained her proudest achievement. Trained as a medical technologist, she pursued art through studies at Red Deer College and the Banff Centre, later moving to Victoria where she co-founded Watermark Printmakers. Her work is held in several Alberta public collections.

​Janet Mitchell (1912–1998) was a pioneering Alberta modernist whose work is celebrated for its vivid colour, rhythmic line, and joyful interpretations of urban and small-town life. Born in Medicine Hat and raised in Calgary under difficult circumstances, Mitchell developed a fiercely independent spirit that shaped her artistic voice. Largely self-directed, she balanced a long career with the Calgary Income Tax Department while studying and painting at night, later attending the Banff School of Fine Arts on scholarship. Deeply influenced by modernists such as Emily Carr, Van Gogh, Klee, and Chagall, Mitchell evolved a distinctive, imaginative style that bridged representation and abstraction. Her six-decade career earned national recognition, including election to the Royal Canadian Academy, major retrospectives, and inclusion in prominent public and private collections across Canada.

​Janet (Holly) Middleton (1922–2018) was a prominent Western Canadian painter, printmaker, muralist, and educator, born in Vernon, British Columbia. She studied at the Winnipeg School of Art, the Provincial Institute of Art and Technology in Calgary, and the Banff School of Fine Arts with artists including H.G. Glyde, Walter J. Phillips, and A.Y. Jackson, later continuing graphic studies at London’s Slade School of Art. Middleton taught for many years at the University of Alberta and the Banff School of Fine Arts, and was an early member of the Canadian Society of Painters & Etchers. Working in watercolour, oil, mural, stained glass, and printmaking, particularly serigraphy, linocut, and woodcut; her work is represented in several Canadian museum collections.

​Isabel Hazel Stadelbauer (1909–2004) was a Calgary-born artist and educator, best known for her landscapes of Calgary and the Mountain Parks. Inspired by family vacations in the Rockies, she pursued art alongside her teaching career, obtaining further training at institutions including the Banff School of the Arts. She taught primarily at the high school level, influencing generations of students, and was a long-standing member of the Alberta Society of Artists, receiving lifetime membership in 1945. Isabel traveled extensively, recording Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia in sketches, paintings, and photographs, often painting alongside her sister Helen. She never married, dedicating her life to art and education, and is remembered for her gentle spirit, her contribution to Alberta’s artistic community, and her evocative wartime and post-war watercolours.

​Isabel Levesque (1917–2012) was an Edmonton-based artist celebrated for her painterly, realistic depictions of the Alberta landscape, old-time harvest scenes, and later, wildlife and western (cowboy) subjects. She studied extensively at the University of Calgary, Alberta College of Art, and the Banff School of Fine Art, working in a range of media from small watercolours to large oil and acrylic canvases. Over her career, her work was acquired by the Alberta government, included in international touring collections, and featured in special presentations, including watercolours given to Princess Margaret for Alberta’s 75th anniversary. Levesque received numerous awards and commissions, such as the First of Province Game Bird Habitat Stamp-Print project, a Gulf Oil purchase prize, and a CAE calendar reproduction. She also served on the Alberta Art Foundation Board, chairing the Northern Alberta Acquisition Committee.

​Irene McCaugherty (1914-1996) was a self-taught Alberta artist, writer, and poet whose folk-art paintings vividly capture the people and cultural life of southern Alberta’s pioneer days. Known for her long, narrow watercolours inspired by the view from her pick-up truck, she depicted auctions, ranching, road building, and small-town life with humour, colour, and a distinctive perspective that broke from traditional one-point rules. Over her career, she created more than 1,000 works, many now displayed at Lethbridge College, and wrote a long-running column, Diary of a Farmer’s Wife, for the Lethbridge Herald. She also self-published three books and a recording of her stories, poetry, and art. McCaugherty received an Alberta Achievement Award in 1992 and an honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Lethbridge in 1995; her work is held in the Galt Museum, the Glenbow Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada.

​Ilda Lubane (1917–2020) was a Latvian-born Canadian artist and educator celebrated for her dedication to the visual arts. Born in Liepaja, Latvia, she survived the Russian invasion during WWII and imprisonment in Germany before immigrating to Edmonton, Canada, where she initially worked as a physiotherapist. She pursued her artistic training at the Banff Centre and the University of the Americas in Mexico City, later teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Extension, offering classes and workshops across Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and the U.S. A lifelong member of the Alberta Society of Artists, Lubane exhibited widely in solo and group shows, while also actively participating in the IMANTA Latvian Society of Edmonton. She received numerous honors, including the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005, and is remembered for her fearless individuality and lifelong commitment to art and education.

​Helen Stadelbauer (1910–2006) was a pioneering Canadian modernist painter and educator, best known for founding and developing the University of Calgary’s Department of Art. Born in Calgary, she nurtured her love of drawing and painting during family trips to the Rockies, later studying at the Banff School of Fine Arts, the Alberta College of Art, Columbia University, and the Royal Drawing Society in London. She taught in rural and urban schools before joining the University of Calgary, where she established its Faculty of Fine Arts and launched BA programs in Art, Drama, and Music. Stadelbauer painted in oil, watercolor, and acrylic, creating landscapes, abstract geometric works, and urban industrial scenes influenced by the Group of Seven and modernist styles. Her work, including the 1946 abstract Breaking the Atom, is among Alberta’s earliest modernist art, and her paintings are held in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Glenbow Museum, and the Nickle Galleries. She retired in 1989 and continued contributing to the arts through donations and scholarship support until her death in 2006.

​Helen Alice Flaig (1931–2021) was born in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, the eldest daughter of Fred and Hellen Grage. Raised on her father’s homestead in the Cypress Hills, she developed a lifelong love of horses and cats. After graduating from Moose Jaw Normal School, she taught in one-room schoolhouses in Southwest Saskatchewan. Helen married Phillip Flaig in 1953, and in 1960 they moved to Manyberries, Alberta, where she lived for most of the next 55 years. A woman of deep faith, she was devoted to family, generosity, and lifelong learning, and enjoyed cooking, reading, puzzles, knitting, and crocheting. She volunteered extensively in Medicine Hat after moving there in 2015. Her life and memory were marked by kindness, hospitality, and her steadfast support for causes like Halo Air Ambulance.