artist biography

Marion Florence Nicoll

Canadian [1909-1985]

Marion MacKay was born in Calgary in 1909 and studied at the Ontario College of Art in 1926. When she returned to Calgary three years later, both thin and anemic, Marion’s mother refused to let her return to the east. Instead Marion attended the Tech (the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, now named the Alberta College of Art and Design) in Calgary. She studied under A.C. Leighton, and in 1933, became a teacher there. Marion married Jim Nicoll in 1940 (they met at a Calgary Sketch Club event in 1931).

While working as an instructor in 1946, Marion was introduced to the concept of automatic drawing – drawing without conscious intent – by J.W.G. “Jock” MacDonald. She was fascinated with the technique, and continued to do these drawings for the next 11 years.

In 1957, while at a workshop in Emma Lake, Saskatchewan, Marion was introduced to influential artist Will Barnet and, with his encouragement, embraced abstraction in both her paintings and prints. From 1958-59, she studied with Barnet at the Art Students’ League in New York. It was a time of great productivity for Marion. She returned to Calgary in 1959, teaching again at the Alberta College of Art (ACA). By 1966, the arthritis that first emerged in the 1950s became so bad that she was no longer able to teach. Although she remained active in the community, she created relatively little work. Marion Nicoll died in 1985.