Vera Olivia Weatherbie

• Name — Vera Weatherbie • Birth Name — Vera Olivia Weatherbie • Born — 1909 • Birthplace — Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • Died — 1977 (aged 67) • Place of death — Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada • Education — Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art, Royal Academy Art • Known for — Painting • Notable Works — Portrait of F.H. Varley, Clam Diggers, and My-E-En • Movement — Modernism • Spouse — Harold Mortimer Lamb • Awards — Vancouver Exhibition Association Scholarship in Drawing and Painting

Weatherbie was born in 1909 in Vancouver and went to Britannia Secondary School. Weatherbie attended the Vancouver School of Decorative Applied Art, now Emily Carr University of Art and Design, from 1925 to 1929 with fellow painter and friend Irene Hoffar Reid. Weatherbie continued her education in 1932-1933 completing post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in London where she expanded her skill in diffused light, muted colour, and fractured surfaces. Upon her return from London, Weatherbie took a position as a painting instructor at the British Columbia College of Arts in Vancouver. The school was founded by Frederick Varley, Jock Macdonald and Harry Täuberwas. Weatherbie worked at the British Columbia College of Arts until it closed due to financial troubles in 1935.

Weatherbie was well known both as a model and muse for such artists as Frederick Varley and her spouse Harold Mortimer Lamb. Varley created a number of portraits of Weatherbie with one of his most celebrated paintings titled Vera (1931) becoming a part of the Masterpieces of Canadian art series postage stamps issued by Canada Post on May 6, 1994. While a student of Varley's at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts in Vancouver, Weatherbie was known for having taught Varley about auras. Harry Adaskin, a Canadian violinist and author, noted, "'Vera, who was involved in mystical speculation, taught Varley about auras: vibrations which surround all people revealing the true state of their emotions and spirit. These vibrations were depicted as colour by those spiritually ready to receive them."

Weatherbie married Canadian artist Harold Mortimer Lamb on May 4, 1942. Weatherbie died at the age of sixty-seven in Burnaby, British Columbia.

• VAG BC Society of Artists, 1929 • VAG BC Artists Annual, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1938 • Night Time, Art Gallery of Toronto and the Twenty-third Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists (Seattle Art Museum)