the Madison avenues and Hollywood boulevards of the 1920s and 30s are iconic landmarks populated by snazzy outfits and snazzier personalities. It is here that the silver screen’s femme fatale forever reign supreme. these historical pop cultural snapshots are the driving force that guides Frederick Watson’s pencil and brushes as he reimagines the countenances of a bygone era through a medium all to tragically forgotten – fashion illustration. Always drawn to the world of clothing, Frederick first discovered this medium while working as a coat room clerk at a Canadian department store called Simpsons. One day, as if by fate, a mysteriously dressed woman came in carrying a partially opened portfolio, which she checked in with her coat before going about her shopping. frederick never imagined that like Pandora’s box, the contents of this folder would change his world forever. his love for high fashion was born that day, but his artistic talents, while probably inherent, were only just beginning to bloom.
Frederick style was further informed by years of studying art deco design and illustrated marketing materials such as fashion magazine ads and theater posters. Still, it was his visit to new york and encounters with the city’s affable artists and glamorously dressed celebrities that gave him the final push he needed to realize his creative ambitions. His pencil work began appearing in magazines like Glamour and on theatrical posters, which quickly became valued collector’s items on the Toronto art scene. for the past few decades, he has focused primarily on large-canvas oil paintings, adding a sense of spectral psychedelia to his already evocative body of work. And while fashion designers and magazines now rely almost exclusively on photography to showcase their season’s best, Frederick has seen continued success exhibiting at Art Galleries and selling to private collectors who, like himself, are inexorably drawn to the glamour and gloss of the Gatsby era.