IN SEARCH OF ART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 271, 15 November 1937, Page 9

IN SEARCH OF ART.

FAMOUS CARTOONIST.

ORIGINATOR OF "WIREGRASS."

DISCIPLE OP MAX MELDRUM.

Because they have at last agreed to do what they have always wanted to do, two fellow-passengers for America by the Mariposa have "picked up their hooks" in their native Australia to seek halcyon days in a foreign land. Both have abandoned, temporarily at least, lucrative careers in the Commonwealth.

One is Mr. Percy A. Leason, worldfamed Australian cartoonist, whose satirical whimsicalities in black and white have tickled the palates of Australians and overseas readers of the publications to which he has contributed for 1" years. He was the originator of Wiregrass, that simple, humorous and intensely human little Victorian wayback settlement whose doings and misdoings he faithfully recorded sfiiee. its genesis in 1020.

During those 17 years he has. with four exceptions, not "failed to provide bis weekly cartoon. They have lieen awaited, devoured and as they came, but now the supply, regarded by "dinkum" Australians as a national institution, has ceased. The fount has not run dry—far from it—but Mr. Lenson, quiet, serene and beauty loving, is going to the United States to follow the art of oils and canvas.

"My. but that's wonderful," he said, as the Mariposa steamed gently to her berth. Ho was gazing through' a port at the North Shore, cool and green and contrasting with the dancing gold of the sun in the hollows of the Waitemata. "I had no idea it was so beautiful. Coming up the harbour this morning I was greatly impressed—l wish I could stay and do some painting." Started Over Again. For painting is Mr. Reason's idea of joy. He revels in his work. "My cartoon each week I would do in about two days and a half, working day and night, of course, and the remainder of the time I would devote to painting," he explained.

The intensity of Mr. Leason'a love of art for art's sake is borne out by the following incident. Some 14 or 15 years ago he "discovered" the famed Scottishborn Australian artist Max Meldrum, and at once fell in line with his precepts. At that time Mr. Leason was a prominent figure in the painting world, and his collection of oils was estimated to be valued at no inconsiderable sum. Con- , vinced, however, that they were not of the true art as portrayed by Max Meldrum he destroyed them all without compunction and set about to establish a new collection.

In the intervening years he has done that in addition to a prodigious amount of cartoon work. Now he is bound for Claremont, hard by Los Angeles, and in the small Southern Californian city he hopes to find peace and contentment and enough to satiate his artistic longing. With him he carries specimens of his work which he intends selling.

"Max Meldrum is the greatest figure in art in Australia, perhaps in the Southern Hemisphere, to-day." Mr. Leason was generous in his tribute. "Just as Edison said, it has taken the man in the street about 25 years to recognise genius. Meldrum has jerked art back to reality. His interpretation of art is the depiction of what the object really is, really looks like, not what the artist imagines it is. He is having a great effect on the ,>eeping in of modernity." Call of Una. . With the name of Meldrum is also associated Mr. Leason's travelling companion, Mr. Oscar Milsen, a pianist and composer of note in Australia, who has abandoned his normal vocation as a public analyst to pursue music. Early last year Mr. Milsen went to Wellington expressly to see a Meldrum painting which he had learned was there. He found the piece, which, much to his chagrin, was nestling unobserved in a secluded spot, but as the result of his visit the work was given the prominence it deserved.

Mr. Leason is a born artist. His father, a Kaniva farmer and wheat agent, apprenticed him to a lithographer. Leason junior served his full five years, but during that time lie studied at the Melbourne National Gallery night school, and for eight years more practised painting and commercial art, until in 1917 he left Melbourne for Sydney and became associated with the staffs of several publications. In 1010 his large oil painting, "Morning," was purchased for the New South Wales Art Gallery.