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Laura Evans Reid was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1883. As a young woman, Evans Reid had established herself as a milliner, a designer of hats, in Barrie and Perth, Ontario. In Perth she met and later married Dr. Robert Reid in 1908. In 1911 the young couple moved to the Canadian west, eventually settling east of Edmonton in Vegreville, Alberta.

After raising her family, Laura Evans Reid began painting in 1935, initially with a small group of amateur artists in the area, eventually organizing the Vegreville Art Club. In 1937, Evans Reid met Henry Glyde when he was teaching for the Community Art program for the University of Alberta's Department of Extension in Vegreville.

Laura Evans Reid quickly evolved a distinctive personal painting style, utilizing bright colours with thick paint applied in a bold and confident fashion. Evans Reid's work is also characterized by dark or black outlines used to establish forms and compositional intensity in her numerous landscapes of Vegreville and area. During her years as an artist, Evans Reid actively exhibited her work throughout Alberta and on occasion in eastern Canada. Laura Evans Reid passed away in 1951.