Before the war she travelled extensively with her parents and was in the Middle East. She studied briefly at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. She came to Canada in 1951 and began studying painting, ceramics and printmaking at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, graduating with a distinction in printmaking. The artist joined the Polish Arts and Crafts Club (a.k.a. Polish Decorative Club), founded in Montreal in 1955, as well as the Societe Canadienne des Peintres Graveurs. "Printmaking is the most modest in number, but represented by a Pole, Maya Lighbody. Ms Lightbody is a talented painter (and aerialist). More recently, her work has appeared in a number of successful exhibitions. Her painting 'Cats at Night', sold on the first day of the exhibition, shows a search for her own solutions" ("Głos Polski").

In 1959, the artist's works participated in group exhibitions: Spring Salon at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Winnipeg Show, Societe des Artistes de la Saskatechewan. Between 1960 and 1962, the artist had solo exhibitions at Upstairs Gallery in Toronto. In 1962 and 1963, the artist's exhibitions at Galerie Libre in Montreal were very well received. Attention was drawn to the virtuosity of the prints on display, the ingenuity of the subjects and the richness of the colours, the original combination of elements of Chinese art, primitive Inuit art and medieval motifs ('La Presse'). In addition to printmaking, collage and painting, Lightbody turned to ceramics and the construction of space figures and totems.

In 1965, Lightbody received a scholarship from the province of Quebec and represented Canada at the International Ceramics Symposium in Austria. In 1968, the artist showed her most recent work at Galerie Libre: small wood sculptures, ceramic miniature figures of saints standing in caves and a series of paintings with angels entitled Night Flyers. Following an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1969, two Lightbody etchings were purchased by the museum for the Saide and Samuel Bronfman Collection. In 1970, the artist presented oils, prints and ceramic totems in an exhibition at Gallery 93 in Ottawa.

From 1973 to 1975 Lightbody spent time in Lesotho, South Africa, as part of a Canadian International Development Agency programme as head of local craft development for Kolonyama Pottery; she then worked for eighteen months with the C.I.D.A. in Pakistan. Upon her return, the artist settled in Knowlton, Quebec, where she and a group of artists focused on promoting arts and crafts in the region. They founded The Artists Group of the Eastern Townships with the aim of organising exhibitions and running the non-commercial Farfelu Gallery, first in Knowlton, then in Sutton.

Each area of the artist's work was dominated by intense colour, animal and plant subjects, unbridled fantasy and the need to combine different forms of expression. Lightbody's fantasy drew on the achievements of past eras and cultures, which manifested itself in a kind of collage narrative of the world: animal and plant forms, religious themes, a flight through space interpreted in different ways. The artist's awards include: first prize at the Graphics Quebec Provincial Exhibition, 1960; first prize at the Graphic Qc. Prov. Exhib. 1962; special prize at the Gmunden Symposium Exhibition, Austria, 1965; special prize at the Montreal Craft and Ceramics Salon, 1966.

Two works by the artist are in the Montreal Musee des Beaux-Arts - 'Formes fossiles' (Fossil Forms), inventory no. Gr. 1965.375, etching; 'La Lettre no 2' (Letter number 2), inventory no. Gr. 1965.374, etching. Works in collections: Concordia University, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, W.G. MacMillan Publishing, Toronto; Department of External Affairs of Canada, University of London/Ontario.

Catalogue work
Maya Lightbody, 'Three Blind Saints Looking for Their Souls', The Gazette March 1968 The work is typical evidence of the artist's fusion of the arts. The oil is painted in a style reminiscent of stained glass. The figures of the three saints are composed of geometric figures, as if made of pieces of glass. The halos around their heads are reminiscent of astronauts' helmets. The saints' faces are poignant, with large, empty eyes and small clenched lips. The background of the painting is an intense blue, the figures are yellow and brown (according to the newspaper information).