SOCIETY OF ARTS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20511, 2 April 1932, Page 16

SOCIETY OF ARTS.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION. NOTES ON THE PICTURES. [By G. M. L. Lester.] 111. A. G. Baxter exhibits a series of excellent water-colours which show a definite improvement in his manner of painting. Mr Baxter has been painting at Concarneau, that time-honoured school of painters. ■ He has seen other artists paint, and has doubtless enjoyed much of the companionship of Sydney Thompson, and the result is evident in his work. Many of the water-colours which he has sent in in the last two years seemed to me poor in colour, and almost timid in the statement of mass and form. This year his colour is rich and definite, his brush work is freer and bolder, and his drawing more convincing. Mr Baxter does not confine himself to Concarneau: he has two picturesque Spanish sketches, and a pleasing reminiscence of Scotland. Mr McCormack, in No. 319, uses his present method of painting to arrive at an effect of brilliant sunlight. But in' Nos. 321 and 322 he seems to me to aim rather higher, and to emulate those consummate artists who have been able by the placing of a few significant figures on a large white surface to create 1 the illusion of a striking decorative effect. To reach success in this style the artist must have first a sense of the value of white spaces, such as Whistler displayed.in his etchings; secondly, a faculty of crisp, accurate, and definite brush drawing, and finally, and perhaps this is the rarest quality, an instinct for the. right placing of the elements of his design. No. 321 is, I think, the most successful of his group. • Miss Richmond's landscapes, Nos. 324329, have a quality which is rare in this modern - world of violent contrasts. They remind me of a saying of that erratic genius Katherine Mansfield: "Delicate perception is not enough: one must find the exact way in which to ,convey it to others." This way, as her pictures witness, Miss Richmond has found long ago. I doubt, however, whether with a palette so restricted as that which Miss Richmond employs in Nos. 326, and 328, full justice can be done to the colour which lies hid in fallen snow. Grace Butler has in No. 39 given us a fine painting of one of the gorges which are so characteristic of the mountain scenery of New Zealand. The blazing bunches of rata, which have been the downfall of many a New Zealand artist, are used here with great effect, and greatly enhance the appeal of this striking picture. Evelyn Poison never fails to exhibit sound and interesting work. Her broad, purposeful brush work, and her appreciation of full, rich colour, make all her studies attractive; and every now and then she sends in a really clever bit of painting. No. 149 is, I think, in many ways quite a brilliant picture. Mrs Friberg carries on her own tradition of painting and exhibiting a series of pleasant views of upland scenery, of which I think No. 114, a view of Lake Sumner, is the best. Mrs FribeTg seems to show a tendency to choose the line of least resistance when face to face with a problem either of drawing or of coldur, which robs many of her pictures of their appeal, but her choice of subject is always happy!, and the general effect of her landscape always harmonious.- *&-""' A. Webster is one of the younger generation who tread the stoney path of art with courage and determination and every exhibition bears witness that the past year's work has not been in vain. No. 164 is a clever little sketch of a difficult subject in which the artist has, as so many do now, used the pen as well as the brush. No. 107, too, is clever, and successful, but would be improved by the elimination of the seated figure which gives the picture its name. Mrs Whiteman paints animals somewhat in the manner of Landseer, and suffers from the fundamental limitation which often robbed him of the appreciation which was his due as a draftsman and a colourist; The interest of her paintings centres not in the pictorial value, of her animals,, but in the sentiment" which arises from their relation to man. No. 17 is, I think, the most successful of her pictures this year. W. J. Beed has a group of good water-colours, Nos. 343-350. In some of Ms work he seems to look upon his subject with the eye of an illustrator rather than with that of a painter, but No. 344 has the true painter's quality. E. Murray Fuller's name is known wherever art is practised in New Zealand, but his contribution to this year's exhibition is, I think,'the first evidence that wb have had of his skill as a water-eolourist. Hs paints fluently with a full brush, and has a feeling for sunlight and bright colour. His series 361367, although they are little more than colour noteß of travel, are very brighj and attractive. Cedric "Savage has one or two decorative oilß as effective and full of colour as those of last year, but his best picture is a water-colour, No. 293. Boland Hipkins uses in his landscapes a colour scheme which is obviously artificial; that.is to say, it is limited by a convention.' On what then does Mr Hipkins base his claim for sesthetic appreciation! His colour appears thin and cold, and his pattern a little overcrowded and over-precise, And yet No. 19 —a Wellington suburb—is a very striking picture: and—the great tesjt of-a picture—improves on acquaintance. That it is so is due to the subtlety and sureness with which he handles colour within the limits of his convention, and the feeling for form which is evident In his careful drawing. . Mr Fitzgerald, who in former years lias painted, but in a different manner, many subjects which would have suited Mr- Hipkins, this year gives us an excellent example of tone painting in No. 74, a composition based on the stately vertical masses of a row of poplars, and the bold horizontal curve of the river Avon. A clean, crisp water-colour, No. 33, by Miss Copeland, though it hangs in a corner, is worthy of careful study. The design of the cottages, the winding Toad, and the clear-cut tree forms is excellent; and the clear, restrained colour renders admirably the quality of the frosty Cornish, air. No. 335 is another freshly painted, attractive watereolour by the same artist. In No. 132 Basil Honour has- a broadly painted sympathetic study of a group of tree forms contrasted with the gracious curves of a haystack and the angularity of a rustic shed. ' Mr Wauchope in "339 exhibits a bold ■weep of coast-line encircling a bright tine sea, framed in a silhouette of tree forms—and in No. 333, a workmanlike study of some of the many beauties of a New Zealand farm. Mary Hogg is one of the younger painters who has for the time taken the impress of some school of painting in England. This is not by any means to her disadvantage, for she has-improved in grasp of her subject, in drawing, and- in purity of colour* In No. 259 her clear and definite statement of the weird cactus forms is excellent. : Nos. 57 and 60 are two clever pictures ]n oils By Minnie F. White. She uses < L (Oontlnued at foot of last column.)