Edith Grace Lawson (née Coombs) was born in Hamilton, and her family moved to St. Catharines. She also lived in Gananoque and later Fort William. She studied at the Ontario College of Art, 1913-1918, and at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1929.

She taught art at Edgehill College, Windsor, Nova Scotia for one year (c.1918); Havergal College, Toronto for three years (1919-1921); and at the Ontario College of Art, (1921-1956).

She was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1928); the Canadian Society of Graphic Art; the Federation of Canadian Artists; the Ontario College of Art Alumni Association; Victoria University Faculty Women's Association; the Three Arts Club (New York); the Heliconian Club; and the Lyceum Women's Art Association.

She painted many images of flowers, most done at her summer home near Parry Sound. She also painted landscapes, figure studies, and abstract work. She painted two murals based on Wyandotte creation myths - now owned by the Museum of Civilization. She designed the stained glass windows for Chalmers United Church in Guelph, Ontario, and she illustrated several books, including The Rambles of a Canadian Naturalist by T.S. Woods and The Brave Little People by Dorothy Campbell.

Coombs exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists, at the National Gallery, the Canadian National Exhibition, with the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, the Montreal Art Association, and many other smaller exhibitions. Her work is owned by the Art Gallery of Hamilton (45 works), the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Macdonald-Stewart Art Centre, and the University of Guelph.

Submitted by Renae Menard

Source:
"Edith Grace Coombs", Canadian Women Artists History Initiative,
//cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=22 (Accessed 12/6/2013)