Born the 8th of December 1908, in Stratford, ON, Ruth Pawson emigrated to Regina with her family as a small child. She received her teacher's certificate in 1927 from the Regina Normal School, and went on to become a classroom teacher with several school boards, a children's art instructor for Regina College, and a primary consultant for the Regina Board of education. She also taught for two years in Germany with the Canada Department of National Defence. Pawson retired in 1965 in order to paint full- time but could often be found with the students of the Ruth Pawson School in Regina that had been named for her.

Starting in 1938 at the University of Regina she began to study art and art history under Augustus F. Kenderdine and Dr. Gordon Snelgrove. She attended the Murray Point Summer School of Art at Emma Lake (1941, 1942, 1946) and till the end of her career she adopted the open-air practices she had began there. Pawson also attended the Banff School of Fine Arts, in Banff, Albert (1944, 1945, 1947) where she studied under A.Y. Jackson, who became a life-long friend. Jackson had a strong influence on her work and strongly encouraged her to continue painting the prairie landscape she loved. Pawson's work consisted largely of such prairie landscapes, taken from the Regina and Fort Qu'appelle valley area. Until she grew older she would paint outdoors using her little stool. When she grew older she would sit in the back seat of her red Volkswagen, "Jake".