Within the abstract idiom, Zoe Longfield experimented with both thicker and thinner paint applications, often employing techniques borrowed from watercolor painting—for example, thin washes of oil applied over the visible white primer of her canvases. Her paintings often include gestural lines that give both structure and movement to her compositions.

In her “modern biomorphic” pieces, she employs a vocabulary of forms that feel primarily organic but occasionally includes more architectural elements. In contrast, other pieces, including her iconic Untitled (red splash), might be considered more purely abstract in their explorations of color, texture, and movement in the absence of forms.

In reviewing Longfield’s solo exhibition at the Metart Gallery, critic Alfred Frankenstein wrote: “One of [Longfield’s paintings] . . . is a finely arranged creation of blues, blacks, and chalky white in which I, at least, detect something of a skull motif. I also enjoyed her symphonic treatment of bone-like shapes in powder blue and mustard yellow . . . But don’t press me for an explanation—it would be purely ectoplasmic.” ¹.

A number of Longfield’s paintings are held in significant collections, including Untitled (black-white), a large piece formerly held in the Blair Collection of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism ² and now gifted to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, as well as in several noteworthy private collections. Her work also appears in the Women of Abstract Expressionism catalog ³ , the companion text to the major exhibit of the same name which was organized by the Denver Art Museum and shown subsequently in multiple other locations in the west.