A High River woman is looking for help identifying the subject in a painting by her mother.

Kim Hessel was recently looking over her mother Betty's belongings a few years after her passing and found a portrait of an unknown woman.

After some discussion with her brothers, Hessel resolved to find the woman in the painting.

"I would really love to give this back to whoever sat for it. I just don't know who she is, and of course, Betty's gone and didn't keep a lot of notes on her subjects, so I thought 'well let's use the power of Facebook to see if we can't find her or her family members.'"

She shared a picture of the painting on Facebook in hopes that someone might know the "mystery woman," and the post has since been shared over 200 times.

Despite that, she hasn't gotten any solid leads yet, aside from one person who thought the portrait bore a resemblance to former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

One of her brothers does recall some details about Betty that might jog someone's memory.

Betty worked at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary and was a member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church congregation.

One of her brothers does recall some details from the time the portrait was being worked on.

"He did give me a rough date, he figures she was working on it sometime between '85 and '88, and he thinks it may have been a portrait that Betty had donated to a fundraiser at St. Joseph's Parish and this woman would have bid and won on the fundraiser. A little bit of a clue there, still no name though."

Given that the portrait is likely to have been painted nearly 40 years ago, Hessel thinks it's possible the subject might have passed away, but even so, she thinks it would still make a beautiful gift for the family.

"When I look at the portrait, to me she does look like a mature woman, early 40s maybe. I have to give my mom credit, she was very very good at getting the likeness of people so I do think this is pretty accurate. If that's the case, and it's in the 80s, she could easily have passed away, she'd be in her 80s, maybe mid-80s. If she has passed, being able to give this to the family would be so beautiful."

She's asking anyone who might have a lead to email her at hcw@telusplanet.net.

Her Facebook post can be seen here.