Ice Painter At Work In Hollywood

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 99, 20 January 1939, Page 14

Ice Painter At Work In Hollywood

TO Hollywood, land of extraordinary jobs, Winchester MacDowell recently brought a new one. He paints ice. MacDowell, originally a.sign painter, got the idea after watching ice carnivals staged by his son-in-law. Why not decorate the ice to enhance the colour of the skating acts, lie asked. So, for more than eight years now he has been doing that, and during the past year has worked with the “lee Follies,” painting the ice of their ballet numbers. When the troupe came to Hollywood to perform MacDowell went with them.

His painting is done freehand, in water colours, which are frozen into the ice. He works ambitextrously, with a brush attached to a long rod in either hand. The size of the brush varies according to the decoration required. First he sprays on his background colour, then fills in his designs. The patterns and colours vary according to the set and costumes. Acts at Christmas and New Tear demand holly and poinsettia. An appearance in Montreal requires a maple leaf. A boy carries along the paint pots and a set of some 20 brushes.

The colours take from six to eight hours to set, after which thp ice is flooded and another quarter-inch coating frozen over the top. This prevents oils in the pigment from seeping through to the surface and providing dangerous, spots for skids, Also it prevents the skates from cutting up the designs, which can be scraped off with a scraping machine when the act is over. '

After seeing MacDowell work, the M-G-M art department is experimenting with some ' further ideas to achieve effects like marble by streaking the ice and imbedding layers of gold and silver flakes. This may open up an entirely new field in frozen decoration.