Freda Pemberton Smith (1902-1991)

Born April 7, 1902, Freda Pemberton-Smith enjoyed a career that spanned eight decades of the 20th century. She studied at the école des beaux-arts de Montréal and later in London at the Slade School of Fine Art. One of her teachers was Edmond Dyonnet in Montreal with whom she studied for nine years, who also numbered jack bush and A Y Jackson among his students. Her family had reluctantly allowed her to pursued an art career on their understanding that she would earn a living at it. In the 1930s, 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 WWII and service overseas with the red cross volunteer aid detachment. After the war, Pemberton-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 1965 for the Ottawa valley town of Vankleek Hill, where she soon became a familiar figure, painting outdoors in watercolour with her paper on the ground and her long-handled brush.

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 in solo exhibitions at galleries, such as the memorial university gallery (St. John’s Newfoundland) (1964); Dresdnere and Kaspar gallery (Toronto); Wallacks, Robertson galleries and the Karsh-Masson gallery (Ottawa); and Zwicker’s gallery (Halifax), among others. She also participated in group shows held by the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour of which she was a member, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Tom Thompson Art Gallery; and the Pastel Society of America.