Elk Lake

A celebrated painter of portraits, murals, landscapes and decorative panels, Irene Hoffar Reid was born in Vancouver in 1908. She attended the first class offered at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. She studied under Charles H. Scott and then under Frederick Varley (1925-1929), who introduced her to the trends in art from Europe and Eastern Canada. In 1931, photographer John Vanderpant exhibited the work of BC artists including Frederick Varley, Jock MacDonald, Emily Carr, C. H. Scott, M. S. Maynard and W. P. Weston, along with the work of three promising young painters - Fred Amess, Vera Weatherbie and Irene Hoffar Reid. This early recognition led to Reid's appointment as an instructor in drawing and painting at the Vancouver School of Art from 1933-1937. Reid participated in numerous exhibits at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Seattle Art Museum, as well as smaller commercial galleries in Vancouver. Her awards include the prestigious Beatrice Stone Medal in Black and White Drawing for 'The Valley' in 1940, and the Centennial Medal for Service to the Nation in the Arts in 1960. Her work is represented in the Vancouver Art Gallery and is in many private collections.