 The children attended a grammar school in Whitby, and she had shown artistic talent in her early childhood years so she pursued her art by attending the Central Ontario School of Art (now Ontario College of Art), where she studied under Professor William Cruikshank.McGillivray then began taking one-on-one lessons from renowned Canadian artists such as Farquhar McGillivray Knowles and Lucius Richard O'Brien.After studying at the Ontario School of Art, McGillivray had private lessons with J.W.L.