Preston M. Smith Art

'Echoes of the Avant-Garde: Mid-Century Visions III', oil on board (circa 1970s). Step into a world where the spirit of early 20th-century modernism meets the bold experimentation o...

A ‘symphony’ of colour neatly framed in pale blue bordered quadrants plays against a wash of yellow in this vivid abstract by Milly Ristvedt. A master colourist, in the 1980s Ristved...

Signed lower left, 'Hortense M. Gordon' for Hortense Crompton Mattice Gordon (Canadian, 1886-1961) and dated 1949. Previously with: Dominion Gallery of Montreal (stamp, verso). Photo courtesy of Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Hamilton artist Hortense Crompton Mattice Gordon was one of Canada’s earliest non-representational painters, embracing abstraction in the 1930s. She was also an active member of Canada's first English-speaking abstract group, Painters Eleven. A scholarship recipient, Hortense Mattice first attended the Hamilton Art School and, subsequently, moved to Chatham, Ontario. Initially focusing on porcelain painting, Mattice quickly began building a portfolio of oils and, from 1908, was exhibiting both her porcelain and landscapes at what is now the Chatham Cultural Centre (1908) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (1909). During this time, Mattice frequently traveled to the United States and, in 1915, visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where she would have seen early works by important modernists including Picasso and Matisse. She started her teaching career in Chatham but, having received a job offer from the artist John Sloan Gordon, returned to Hamilton to teach at the Hamilton Art School in 1918. The two artists married in 1920. In 1922, Gordon and her husband took a study trip to France and, inspired by the fervent of Modernist ideas in Paris, expanded her own approaches to art, developing an increasingly soft, loose paint handling style. It was not until the 1930’s, after a few more trips to France and her discovery of Piet Mondrian’s work, that elements of abstraction began to appear in Gordon’s work. After the death of her husband in 1940, Gordon attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art and studied with Hans Hoffmann (1941-1945) whose influence and friendship pushed her to explore non-objective painting. After her training with Hofmann and in Cranbrook, Gordon began to exhibit regularly and with success in both Canada and the United States including at the Riverside Museum (New York, 1947), Creative Gallery (New York, 1952), in Ann Arbor (Michigan, 1952), Phillips Gallery (Detroit, 1952), the Flint Institute of Arts (Michigan, 1952), Mount Allison University (New Brunswick, 1952), the Galerie Agnes Lefort in Montréal and Art Gallery of Hamilton (retrospective, 1960). She was a member of the Contemporary Artists of Hamilton (honorary president in 1948), the Ontario Society of Artists, the Hamilton Women...

“Points of Contact “ first painting in the “Dance with a Fan” series Each work in the polyptych “Points of Contact” reveals moments of unity and interaction through the imagery of d...

The second work of the “Open Touch” polyptych Series “Dance with a Fan” A fan in the dancer’s hands is an extension of their movement, thoughts, and emotions. It carves trajectories...

Jacqueline Pavlowsky was born in 1921 in Vincennes to Russian and Polish Jewish parents who had emigrated to France. After the war, she pursued parallel studies in chemistry, while d...

Abstract painting in the main color deep green with elements in white, black, yellow, orange and red. This abstract painting is lively and expressive. Abstract minimalism paired with...

This colorful abstract painting, "Harlequin", by artist Charles Emery Ross is a 46x28 acrylic painting on canvas featuring bold brush strokes and drips of vibrant color. Blue, purple...

This abstract Alaskan glacier landscape, crafted by a talented Alaskan woman artist, is a striking exploration of nature's icy majesty through the lens of abstraction. The painting i...

Richard Garrison collects information from typically overlooked aspects of daily life. Observed data from places like big box stores and parking lots are systematically transformed i...

This painting is part of a new series that embodies my ongoing artistic journey. I begin each piece with an initial idea or thought. However, as the painting evolves, I find myself r...

Exploring the purity of the feminine form and the drama of French haute couture, artist Cindy Shaoul creates a dialogue between the figurative and the abstract. Her spirited composit...