Born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Mina Mabel Forsyth (nee McDonald) was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, on the 25th of September, 1920. Forsyth completed her high school by correspondence while working at the Bank of Montreal. She then completed the Associate's and Fellows Course in banking at Queen's University and worked for the British Air Commission in Washington and New York (1942-1946). Beginning with art courses in Gimli, Banff, Emma Lake and Saskatoon, she began to study art. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba (1955) and a Master of Fine Arts from Michigan State University (1957).

In 1966 Forsyth began teaching with the University of Saskatchewan, becoming a full professor in 1981. She attended the Emma Lake Workshops in 1955, 1964, 1967, 1981, and 1987. As Forsyth herself once wrote, her primary focus was not in seeking exposure for her work but on working at that craft and on teaching. Letters of reference from students and colleagues indicate she was a teacher who took a genuine and warm-hearted interest in her students and their work. Mina Forsyth passed away in 1987, and in 1991, she received a posthumous Lifetime Award from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.