THE ELAM ART SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 146, 21 June 1889, Page 3

THE ELAM ART SCHOOL.

(To tho Editor.)

Sir.— Apropos of bhe Elam arb beachership the cuery arises—What form of art is mosb required in the district? In a certain school of design there was a varied succession of domina. One considered his pupils should be perfect, in outline, so lines and curves in every possible position 'wore attempted. Another followed, who inculcated, " Neglect the grammar of art and details ; the general effect of your drawing will be passed ; also that s'ryie was a power over material." Then one with floating locks told us to '• Look at Apollo ! and study the lights and shades of that immortal brow." Now I consider each student should have some definite aim in his or her work, and as there are.no limits to the designs required by tho manufacturers, cur Christmas flowering trees will furnish richer and raver models than the wild-rose and forget-me-not of my erstwhile Staffordshire ware. No matter what the model is, tho idea of the beautiful must be in bho head. Wo have been bold recently thab the children in tho schools can't draw. I reply, " Crude as their first, attempts may be, which of then . of average intellect, if weil directed, does nob deem it a pleasure bo creabe?" A map has been defined as a picture. I lamentably failed to see in crinkling lines and words the likeness of anything in theearth beneath or I the waters under the earth. A slight sketch would make a lesson realistic. The ordinary cheap-prints educate the eye in deformity. Few'of the pupils may have bhe talent of Rosa Bonheur wiien she selected her •'.subjects" in tho cattle-market'at Falkirk, yet their training should caus_ them to see the points of a good horse, cow, and others of like kind, and while the rising generation appreciates our landscapes, calm, and domestic, May their wish and caro A few paternal acres bound— Content Co breathe their native air In their own ground. E.C., Pukekohe.