ART EXHIBITION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 35, 10 August 1921, Page 5

ART EXHIBITION

NEW ZEALANDERS IN ENGLAND

MR, R. HERDMAN-SMITH. ''

(HIOJC OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 21st June. _ ■ Among New Zealand artists exhibiting in London is Mr. Herdman-Smith, late of Christchurch and Wellington. For eighteen months he has been a member of the Art Colony at Newlyn, in Cornwall, and from an examination of his latest paintings, which 'are hung .at the Burlington Gallery, Leicester-square, it is evident he has really' caught the^spirit of the Cornish: scenery. Of the thirty water' colours in the "one man" exhibition threa are New Zealand landscapes. Two of them are drawn from the point of view of the foothills on tho West Coast. Thus wo havo tho half-cleared bush land with the snow mountains in the background. The other bears the, title "Mist Clearing Lake Moana," and is certainly the boat of the three. These Bhow good work, but are not particularly striking, A few Venetian scenes suffer from the fact that this part of the world has been treated in innumerable ways by innumerable great artists, and Mi. Herd-man-Smith produces nothing out of the ordinary. His more recent work in Comwalij however, shows a wonderful appreciation of this part of England. There s no attempt to appear extraordinary, and he has made a study of the clear atmosphere and searching light which so many artists attempt to evade—and this without offending in the matter of hardness. Most of his pictures are full of sunlight, and refreshing, but ho also paints several studies m 'subdued light and demonstrates his versatility. A picture entitled "Dawn"—a cornfield with a village beyond on the hillside—is one of this particular style, and by some it will be considered the best in the exhibition. Group* of small sea craft and rock and water, scones he has also 'produced with admirable effect, but on the whole 1 those in which hp has so successfully portrayed the crystal clearness of the atmosphere are entitled to the greatest praise. * Mr. Herdman-Smith was recently elected an Associate of the Royal West of England Acadamy. Last year ho had two pictures hung at the R.W.A. Autumn Exhibition, two at the Liverpool Walker Gallery, and throe vrator colours at the Leeds Art Gallery. Mrs. R. S. Hellaby (Ruth, Hollinggworth) is showing half a _ dozen of her pictures at the .annual exhibition of the Women's International Art Club, Three of these are the products of her sojourn j in Italy, and similar in-conception tol those exhibited in the Royal Academy. Tuscan landscapes have their limited interests, with their cultivated hillsides a-nd the relief obtained in - tho dark cedar trees, but Mrs. Hellaby handles her subject, in a masterly vay. Another canyns allows part of the Sussex Downs. ' For those who are fond of still life studies there are two small pictures of blue art vases, They/ are delicately worked, and the rich JkpphU'a colouring la very «t> 'tritetive,