HEN ELIZABETH Smily told me that she was the best portrait artist, there was something in the way she said it that made me believe her. Evelyn Jacob . SPOTLIGHT FEATURE Oh sure, from here it sounds like puffed up braggadocio, but coming from this slender grey- haired woman it was just another plain truth — like it’s raining out- Side. “Smily is a woman without. > doubts, the picture of self- _assuredness. So when she assum- _ed that of course'l would write a story about her or that she was “too good looking for her own - goou,””. | didn’t feel the urge to roll my eyes‘or.turn off my tape re- cordez as 1 would with a less than genuine artist self-promoter. -.*. Less than five minutes after meeting Smily and her two com- panions — a large, black poodle _ and a pint-size tan mut in her Brit- ish Properties suite — | knew that | ‘tked her. i liked her sharp wit and her ability to laugh freely at her own jokes. : She struck me as a certain type of woman-artist | have come to recognize: women who seem .so strong now because they stuck it out in a time when being a woman * artist was reckless because society _disdained the thought of indepen- “dent, free-thinking women. Smily, who was raised in a fami-- ly of engineers, moved to Canada in the early ‘50s just.as she was making a name fer herself as an - _ accomplished portrait artist in - London. _. While her schocl mates were ‘painting landscapes, she was painting people's faces because it - was what came naturally.’ . ~ “I think it’s the thing that I'm best at and it’s the thing | enjoy the most. We did a lot of it at the Royal Academy and | was always the best,’”’ she says, surrounded by half-finished canvases and a strik- ing portrait of her daughter Frances, now a successful New York fashion designer. But Smily can’t help feeling a pang of guilt that she wasn’t as serious about her work as she should have been. “My trouble,” she grins, “‘is that | was too good looking. The boys liked me. | think I'd have been a much more serious artist if | had been plain.” And she feels equally remorsefu! that her parents spent a small for- tune on her education. Smily says she was a wretched student and because of it, wound up in art school at the tender age of 15. “l was a very poor student because ! couldn't see. | had a stigmatism and didn’t know it. 1 eventually learned to read at 82 when | got my glasses, but. ! was always behind. “My poor parents. They sent me to all kinds of private schools ~ it cost them a fortune and |: didn’t learn anything. | was always heating up the thermometer.” After graduating from the Royal Academy with top honors, Smily opened her own studio in Chelsea which became a mecca for inter- MARLENE DIETRICH, Jimmy Stewart, Trevor Howard and cham- pion horseracer, Secretariat, are portrait painter Elizabeth Smily’s most famous subjects. Dietrich complained that Smit national celebrities and artists, in- cluding her idol, portraitist . Augustus John. Since those heady days she has dedicated her whole life to art, and has firmly established her name in Canadian art circles fol- lowing her marriage to Toronto newspaper reporter Powell Smily in 1952 and their subsequent move to Montreal. Living in West Vancouver since 1969, Smily is well-known as a vi- sual artist and arts advocate : through her work with the Cana- dian Federation of Artists, for which she served as president for two years. Some of her newer paintings can be seen at West Yancouver's Ferry Building this week, which has mounted a one-woman show of her portraits. it’s a good sampling of Smily’s work and a rare opportunity for Vancouverites to see her work ex- hibited. It doesn’t, however, in- chide her more famous portraits of some of the silver screen's most glamorous faces: Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Stewart, Trevor Howard and Glynis Johns. During her early years in Lon- don, Smily met several famous ac- tors through a scientist-boyfriend who worked in the movies. Of everyone she met she remembers Dietrich best, especial- ly the film star’s famous chiselied nose. Smily met Dietrich at her first one-person exhibit at the Studio Club in Piccadilly in 1951. Dietrich was in England filming No High- way in the Sky. She came to see her show with German director Henry Koster and ended up giving Smily an im- promptu performance of Falling in Love Again in the dark when the electricity cut and the lights went out. “There was a Siackout and she See Subjects page 22 had painted her nose too short - the German actress said she knew its share really well because she had painted it (with makeup) all her life. FREE HENCKEL KNIFE SHARPENING Todsand Tedmniques THE STORE FOR COOKS SATURDAY November 2nd/91 12 to 3pm 90% OFF . 5 0 All Fourstar. and Professional Henckel Knives SALE ENDS THE a3 J. A. HENC! SINCE 1734 N OVEM BER Sthist Tods and Techniques THE STORE FOR COOKS 250-16th St., West Vancouver 925-1835 Christmas — Craft Fair %% 80 Professionai Craftspeople * ¥ . Artwork and Basketry, Country Crafts abound; Christmas Baking and Ethnic Food, Ail these can be found. Porcelairi and Pottery, Jewellery and Stainglass too; Teddies, Toys and Simmering Spices, Pius much, much more for you! - Sun., Nov. 3, 1991/10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Raffles & Free Babysitting! See our Christmas Cafe! St. Thomas Aquinas I choo _ 541 W. Keith ae North vancouier 987-4431, ohoto Terry Peters Our New Chef from Hong Kong introduces new Lunch Combo’s‘6® Served between 11:20 am - 2:30 pm Inciudes coffee or tea MONDAY — Egg roll, minced chicken with sweetcorn soup, mushroom fried rice. TUESDAY — Dry garlic spareribs, minced beef soup witii egg white & parsley, chicken chow mein. WEDNESDAY — Garlic honey 7, Almond Shrimp - 8. Almond BBQ Pork d spareribs, wonton soup, steame 9, Almond Beef 10. Chicken wimushrooms THURSDAY — Deep fried wonton, iL. Beef wiblack bean & grn. peppers chicken noodle soup, shrimp fried 12. Beef witomatoes rice. . ‘3B. Spiced tofu w/minced pork FRIDAY — Deep fried fish, hot & 14. Curried beef sour thick bean curd soup, 15. 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