PEASANT ARTISTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 47, 19 November 1907, Page 3

PEASANT ARTISTS.

■ One of ; the most interesting social ventures in.England is the Peasants' Art Society, carried oh by two artists, Mr. and Mrs. Blotiht: Its locus standi is in tho littlo- town of Haslemere, near Tennyson's old home. ' For eight years now tho society has gone .011 accomplishing, slowly but surely, spmo.very artistic work. 'Tho actual work is nearly all' dono by young girls in tho neighbourhood—girls who are paid a fair wage for t-hoir labour, and who are taught- incidental)' something of the ethics of production. . A speciality of "tho society is peasants' embroidery; done in materials woven by the workers themselves. As a rule, the background for this embroidery is in tho natural colour of. the linen;-the applied work in simple, fresh colours —reds, hluos, greens, yellows and purples; tho outlines usually a darker shade of the colours it defines. Sometimes a'single colour is used for all the outlines, and this has an excellent effect in harmonising the All the outlines of tho applied .linen are done in satin stitch— as opposed.' to. tho button-hole and blanket stitch, associated with most applique work. Tho forms are kept'large and simplo, the finished articles being intended for wall coverings, Lcurtains, bed spreads, and table cloths. Another'speciality with tho society is simplo wood carving, on tho traditional lines of the Swiss and Bavarian peasantry. The design' is, traced or drawn 011 the wood, and then outlined firmly with tho V tool. The background is then dug out roughly with tho gouge./ The work is then coloured in strong simple tints, tho background possibly deep red, either distemper or. oil colour being used. .The work is largely used architecturally,: .for'.' friezes, and tho like—mottoes being frequently interwoven with tho design. .