Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1909, Marion Nicoll née Mackay, would become one of Alberta's first abstract artists.

 

Encouraged to pursue art by her high school art teacher, Nicoll enrolled at the Ontario College of Art. From 1927 to 1929 she benefitted from the tutelage of Group of Seven members Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Franz Johnston. When Nicoll returned to Calgary, she studied with A.C. Leighton at the Provincial Institute of Technology—"the Tech"(which eventually split into the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the Alberta College of Art, now the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary).

 

Upon completing her fine arts degree in 1932, she accepted a teaching position in crafts and design at the Tech. This eventually led Nicoll to pursue specialised eduction in the subjects she was teaching. This time she moved to London, England to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central Saint Martins). Returning to teach at the Tech in 1938, Nicoll enhanced the crafts program to include what she had learned—batik, block printing and screen printing.

 

Marion Nicoll left her teaching position again in 1940 when she married Jim Nicoll. Over the next few years the couple moved numerous times due to her husband's job with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

 

When they finally settled again in Calgary, the Banff School of Fine Arts hired Nicoll to teach during the summers. Here she met fellow instructor, Jock Macdonald who had recently been hired as head of The Tech's Art Department. It is likely due to his influence that led Nicoll to rejoin the academic staff there in 1946. In addition to this, Macdonald introduced Nicoll to automatism.

 

This technique of drawing ultimately led her to diverge from the academic style she had learned from A.C. Leighton. Nicoll's art then evolved from landscape painting to a distinct style of classical abstraction. She initially kept her abstract and automatic work relatively private. But after attending the 1957 Emma Lake Artists Workshop with Wil Barnet, Nicoll embraced hard-edge abstraction. She arranged to take leave from her teaching position and travelled to New York to study with Barnet at the Art Students League.

 

Though hesitant to leave New York, Nicoll returned to Calgary and to teaching a different artist. Abstraction was becoming more accepted in the province and her new work was positively received. Clement Greenberg praised her, and she was included in an important exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada which opened in England and then toured in Canada.

 

Upon retirement from teaching in 1966, Marion Nicoll was finally able to work in her studio full time.

 

Marion Nicoll was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and she received the Alberta Achievement Award of Excellence for Outstanding Contribution to Art. Nicoll's work is in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Glenbow Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, amongst others.