Sold for: $34,250

PROVENANCE
Peter Ohler Fine Arts Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, Vancouver

This fine panorama shows a stunning view from West Vancouver over Burrard Inlet to Vancouver on the far shore, its streets laid out in a colourful grid. In 1953, Gordon Smith built a house in West Vancouver designed by well-known architect Arthur Erickson, where he lived peacefully until the end of his life, enjoying the proximity of city and forest. He was part of a vital community of modernist artists in Vancouver that included Lawren Harris, B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt. It was an exciting and formative time in the city, and Smith was incorporating into his art the discoveries made during his 1951 enrolment at San Francisco’s California School of Fine Arts, where he was exposed to Abstract Expressionism through his teachers and viewing exhibitions.

Smith’s use of colour here is vivacious, and his depiction of reflected lights from the city shimmers with many hues in the ocean, giving the impression of movement. Smith deploys interesting spatial effects not only in the water but in the foreground—the pale forest floor on the hill makes the trees float, as if they are immersed in a reflection of sky. Smith establishes a fine equilibrium between the solidity of trees and streets and the ephemeral effects of water, sky and foreground that is both playful and assured.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars