14

In 1918, she worked as a nurse, treating victims of the Spanish Influenza epidemic.

15

Graduation
1923
New York

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

16

The same year, she returned to school, attending the Curry School of Expression in Boston, which was an art school set up for wealthy young women. She specialised in elocution (acting), which involved memorising plays, prose, and poetry, and then presenting them orally. She spent a brief period at St. Margaret's College studying under Marion Long, and in the early 1920's, she studied at the Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York. There she received a Bachelor of Science, also studying art education and receiving a professional certificate in Fine Arts.

17

Teacher's College
1925
Regina, SK

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

18

In 1922, Grayson was appointed Art Curriculum Supervisor for the Moose Jaw Public School Board. A few years later, she began instructing at the Normal School teacher's college in Regina, and in 1929, she was made Director of Art at the Normal School in Moose Jaw. During this time she wrote two books on art appreciation for elementary and high school students. The books took examples of Canadian and European artwork and gave brief interpretations of them, as well as correlating them to music, prose, and poetry. They became widely circulated during the 1930's. In the 1940's, she led sketching trips into the mountains for the Banff School of Fine Arts. Grayson would continue to be an art educator in some capacity for the next twenty years.

19

Alpiners
1920-30
Tonquin Valley

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

20

Grayson with Two Friends
Circa 1926
Rocky Mountains

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

21

Grayson travelled extensively throughout her life. During the 1920's, she continued to travel to the mountains during the summers, joining excursions with the Canadian Alpine Club, or "Alpiners", as she called them. This was a group comprising climbing enthusiasts from around the world who joined together for guided mountain climbing expeditions, yet Grayson did not attend these for the experience of climbing and summitting the Rocky Mountains. She was far more interested in hiking to those locations among the lakes and mountains that provided sketching and painting opportunities. She only went out with the Alpiners a few times, and afterwards preferred to organise her own excursions.

22

Blue Velvet
1926
Moose Jaw, SK

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

23

Vaughan Sketching
1937
Rocky Mountains

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

24

After her marriage in 1929, she began to paint more seriously. In the 1940s, she became more successful exhibiting her pieces. She showed some of her work at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on 1940, and showed at the Annual British Columbia Exhibition from 1942 to 1945. Her painting Mount Rundle was voted third out of 133 works at the 1942 exhibition.
The majority of her works were produced in the 1950's. She briefly involved herself with sculpture, but didn't stay with it, saying that she "could handle painting" better. The overwhelming preference in her art was for mountain scenery, with which she had fallen in love during her earlier trips to the Rockies. Lakes and trees were also commonly featured; she always tended towards the grandeur of nature. Rarely did her paintings ever show evidence of human presence.

25

Around this time, she also learned the art of silkscreen printing. She was taught by a man from Edmonton and took to the new medium immediately. Silkscreens were still somewhat new as an art-making technique, and Grayson continued to experiment with them throughout the 1950's. She usually made editions of 20 prints for her paintings, and would always sell out.

26

Adventures of an Artist in the Canadian Rockies, by Vaughan Grayson
22 March 2006
Moose Jaw, SK

Credits:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

27

Grayson's expeditions into the Rockies continued well into her 60's. During the 1950's and early 1960's, she completed a manuscript entitled Adventures of an Artist in the Canadian Rockies. It details several trips through Alberta and British Columbia where she completed the majority of her artwork. It is divided into brief chapters, each one dealing with a different locale, and each one assigned a different quotation from various poets or authors. The personal narrative is limited, and interactions with other people even moreso. The book's primary focus is to convey the impression that the grandeur of nature in the Rockies has on Grayson. She submitted the manuscript for publication in 1962, but it was rejected. It would finally be published nearly a decade after her death.