A NEW ZEALAND PAINTER

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 11

A NEW ZEALAND PAINTER

; «, ;','; re^gnition in paris! ;'. - !^ A recent Continental tour of Mr. Sydney L. Thompson, extended over a considerable period, has, provided him with many, attractive subjects for bis pictures. He1 has. been extremely well-hung this season at. the' Paris Salon, as well as at the. International Exhibition at Nice. ' ■■• 'The Jury complimented the artist as he, was:yyisiting_ '■the salon, ,arid they were most enthusiastic about his exhibits.1, He was awarded an .honourable mention. Three of his pictures are being, shown at* the Exhibition dcs Beaux Arts, at Monte ■Carlo.' .They -are : .entitled: "Les Thonniers," "L Arivee/ dcs Sardines,"; and "Port xde v Coiicarrieaui";'M. R. Valetta, an eminent . .French ' critic, remarks;: "Amongst the painters of light and. col-, bur I must speak of, Sydney L. Thompson,, whose; pictures reveal a talent incontostably superior. ' He has rendered: hit impressions with' prodigious exactness, and is aided by. a most .'personal style which ■ shows great assurance and an imperturbable" frankness. A few strokes of the, brush have siiffioed to indicate" the fluidity of the'water, the limpidity'of the sky,1 the crowded harbour, the humidity of a quay. , A' few touches applied with knowledge and elrillt suffice to indicate the figures and define exactly their condition, giving them that calm aspept, that, stolid nonchalant air, so of .. the Breton fiahorfoik." ' ( / "'.,'■'<■'' i The!:, Paris Salon Times says ,that.Mr. Thompson ''brings us back to tßarth with his happy,, vigorous, if a trifle j brutal, scenes of harbour life at Cpncarneau, a blaze of colours beneath a Tintoretto sky. ... For! the time being Mr; Thompson is ian artist of Concamieau,1 bnt he has pictures in his' studios to show that he has looked; deep. into the1 character of other' places as .well."' They ,teke*i a visitor away to the South to see-: the rare colours brought by the mißtral.and by the bloom of the fruit trees, and even then into the gardens' of Tunis/ 'The artist is a'portrait painter as' well, and has a delightful example of his recent w6rk; iri a picture of Mrs. W. J. Leech, of Boston.'1' Mr.; Thompson spent the winter* in St. Jeannet, in the hfll country- behind Nice. He works much at Concarheau, Finisterro..'- • ■'■ ■ ' ■"•■' ■ .-'■'■ " . ■■: - '! ■'•.."