SOLOMONS ART SHOW
Solomons, June 26. ! Four New Zealanders received awards at an Allied servicemen's two-thousand-entry arts and crafts exhibition just held at the Solomon Islands base. They were L/Cpl Arthur Walker, of Palmerston North; LAC Duncan McPhee, of Masterton; Dvr. Charles F. Milne, of Christchurch, and ACI Lester Hannibal, of Christchurch.
I Eighteen New Zealand Air Force or Army men entered exhibits in thirteen classified sections and were placed in five of them, LAC Mc Phee gaining two mentions. Lieut. Russell Clark, New Zealand war artist in the Solomons, was a member of the hanging and judging committees for the exhibition, which was conducted by the Special Services branch of the United States Army and covered studies of all kinds made in the South Pacific theatre.
The work of the prize-winning New Zealanders, and of those whose entries were accepted for hanging but which did not receive awards was of a generally high standard. A woodcarving entry for which a New Brighton boy, C F. Maine, received second place, was highly praised by W- Mark Simpson, leading American sculptor, who deemed Milne's work to be outstanding, showing a clever sense of humour and nice execution. Milne showed a woodcarving of a native woman sitting smoking, as one of his eight entries of woodcarving, pencil drawings and cartoons.
Simpson, who* did not enter in the competitive sections, has a very high reputation in the United States. He showed, at the Solomons exhibition, a miniature of the proposed memorial to be erected on Guadalcanal . commemorating the men who died in that area in action against the Japanese. The model is of a seated Liberty figure with sheathed sword held point down. She holds also a branch of laurelHer shoulders are draped with a flag, and she is clad in armour as a symbol of strength. The memorial standing some twenty-four feet, will stand near the chapel of Guadalcanal's Allied cemetery, at the end of an avenue of palms extending from the sea.
LAC McPhee, with awards in the pen and wash class and in caricature, did a number of his drawings on Bougainville with the R.N. ZA.F. He has exhibited frequently in New Zealand, where before the war he was a journalist in Masterton. McPhee is now liaison artist attached from the R.N.Z.A.F, to the American Special Services.
SOLOMONS ART SHOW
Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, 5 July 1944, Page 7
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