Born in 1889 at Ridgeway, Iowa, to Norwegian pioneers (Ole and Henrietta Sherven), the fifth daughter of seven with a younger brother and four sisters, Olena came to a homestead 30 miles north of Watson, Saskatchewan in 1911. Olena’s interest in sketching animals at a young age led to her being enrolled in a Lutheran college in Red Wing, Minnesota in 1907, where she learned oil painting. She had previously taken a mail course doing a pen and ink perspective exercise. Her father encouraged further schooling, so she went to the Winnipeg School of Art during 1914-15 where pencil studies of the human form were taught using plaster models. She married Rutherford W. Smith sometime around 1920. In 1938, she went to the Winnipeg School of Art for a brief time; LeMoine FitzGerald, a member of the Group of Seven, was Head. Boarding with her sister on the U of S campus, she was able to get lessons from Gus Kenderdine who had been appointed the university’s first art instructor. Two copies of Kenderdine oil paintings survive from these lessons. Her first showing was held in Saskatoon. She exhibited oils “Winter” and “Autumn,” scenes from the farm. She attended the Emma Lake summer school for three seasons. Instructors included Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McCay, Reta Cowley, H.W. Wickenden, and Winona Mulcaster. In later winters at Edinburgh, Texas, Olena enjoyed doing street scenes in Mexico and some portraits in pencil. Retiring to Melfort, she continued to sketch, making notes on colours for future paintings. She died in Melfort in 1972 at the age of 83.

Arthur James Elliott was born April 27, 1895 in Killarney, Manitoba. The family moved to Fielding, Saskatchewan. Elliott attended the University of Saskatchewan. Arthur enlisted for service in World War One, as a private, on June 19, 1916. He was promoted to Lieutenant in June 1917. After being injured A.J. returned to Canada in 1918 and then re-enlisted in the Expeditionary Force in Vladivostok, Russia, in 1919. He re-enlisted again in 1940, this time as a member of the Veteran’s Guard. He died in Sointula, British Columbia, in 1976.

Ian Innes was hired by Colb McEown and Jim Wedgewood in July, 1958 and worked as a Planner and Architect for the University of Saskatchewan from 1958-1992.