Marion Nicoll (1909-1985) studied art at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and continued her education at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (which is now the Alberta University of the Arts) from 1929-1932. After further study abroad, she returned to the Alberta University of the Arts in 1939, where she became the first woman hired by the institution as a permanent instructor and she continued to teach for thirty years. She was the first woman in the prairies to become a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists and Print and Drawing Council of Canada. In 1958 she was awarded the Province of Alberta Achievement Award.

Marion produced watercolours, drawings and oils through the 1930s, 40s and 50s. While teaching at the Banff School, she met Jock MacDonald who introduced her to automatic drawing, which became a bridge to her later abstract works. Her paintings and prints are distinctive in their bold composition and imagery. She experimented with many printmaking techniques, including woodblock and clay prints. She is remembered as one of the first abstract painters in Alberta.