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= Freda Pemberton Smith, CSPWC =

Freda Pemberton Smith (April 7, 1902 – February 9, 1991), a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, was a Canadian landscapist and portraitist. Her work has been shown in exhibitions from British Columbia to Newfoundland, and is found in collections at home and abroad.

Biography and Career
Born April 7, 1902, Freda Pemberton Smith enjoyed a career that spanned eight decades of the 20th Century. She studied in her native Montreal at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and later in London at the Slade School of Fine Art. One of her teachers was Edmond Dyonnet, RCA, who also numbered Jack Bush and A.Y. Jackson among his students.

Her family had reluctantly allowed her to pursue an art career on the understanding that she earn a living at it. In the 30’s, however, the Depression put an end to a promising start in the field of commercial art, and her work was further interrupted by the advent of World War II and service overseas with the Red Cross VAD.

After the war, Miss Smith began painting again and also did some teaching, but like many women artists of the past century found much of her time taken up with family obligations. It was only after her mother’s death in 1956 that she was able to devote herself fully to her art. She left Montreal in the mid-sixties for the Ottawa Valley town of Vankleek Hill, where she made her home until her death in 1991. Freda Pemberton Smith was known for her expressionistic style and for her strong use of colour and her ability to convey effects of light, mood and movement. Her work has been shown across Canada in solo exhibitions at Galerie Dresdnere and Kaspar Gallery (Toronto), Robertson Galleries (Ottawa), and Zwicker’s Gallery (Halifax), among others. She also participated in group shows held by the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery; and the Pastel Society of America

Reviews
The Gazette, commenting on an exhibition held in Montreal in 1960, noted: “The subjects for this well-known Montreal artist’s show… (are all) painted with observant and vigorous spontaneity…. Miss Pemberton-Smith is successful in her invigorating and expressive smaller sketches, hastily painted with passionate intensity…. A large palette knife portrait (“Old Newfoundland”) (is) remarkable for its monumental and relaxed quality.” (1)

Reviewing an exhibition at Wallacks in 1965, the Ottawa Journal stated: “This highly gifted artist…seems to possess equal facility with landscapes, seascapes, street scenes, occasional pieces and portraits…. This is altogether a first rate one-woman show.” (2)

The Ottawa Citizen, in an article on the retrospective held at Ottawa’s Karsh-Masson Gallery entitled “Freda Pemberton, a Centennial Celebration”, described her work as “dynamic”: “Her watercolours are vivid and full of movement…. Her pastels and pen-and-ink drawings are composed of bold, definite strokes…. Everywhere, there’s a feeling of pent-up energy and vigour.” (3)

Over the years, other articles on Miss Smith have appeared in Arts West Magazine; Le Droit; the Montreal Gazette; the Montreal Star; the Ottawa Citizen; the St. John’s Evening Telegram; Ottawa Life magazine; and the Westmount Examiner.

Her work has been discussed on CBC Radio; CJOH-TV’s “Regional Contact”; Rogers Cablevision; and Vision TV.

(1) Montreal Gazette, QC, February 29, 1960 “Freda Pemberton Smith’s…” (2) Ottawa Journal, Ont., May 12, 1965 “One-Woman Art Show Worthwhile” by W.     Q. Ketchum

(3) Ottawa Citizen, March 18, 2002 “Remembering Miss Pem” by Connie Higginson Murray

References

A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (v.5); Colin S. MacDonald; Canadian Paperbacks

Canadian Women Artists Initiative: Artist Database; cwai.concordia.ca

Freda Pemberton Smith: Her Work; Van Kleek Gallery 1982; ISBN 0969109601

Freda Pemberton Smith: Painting is a River; Rogers-Hawkesbury 1995

Garden Varieties (cover illustration); Cormorant Books 1988; ISBN 0920953018