AN AETIST RETURNS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 14

AN AETIST RETURNS

MISS MYRTLE LEE

After aa absence of 20 years from! New Zealand, Miss Myrtle Lee, granddaughter of John.Gully, the artist, has returned to Wellington for a short visit. Miss Lee'has followed in her grandfather's footsteps with considerable success, and has made quite a name for herself in England during her absence from the country of her birth. Nest . week Wellingtomans' will be able to see an exhibition of her watereolours and ottier |craft productions us well. In England, as elsewhere, Miss Lee remarked to a "Post"'representative, the artist was having a hard time. The new rich at Home did not buy pictures or books, and the new poor could not. It was staggering to see really good work on the pavements, executed by artists who were literally down and out. In former days, when things were bad, artists could.often make ends meet\by doing a little teaching. But in these days there was practically no one to teach, for no parent would encourage his children, if it was necessary for them to earn their own living, to take up art as a commercial proposition. ATt in England was getting away from the early Victorian pretty-, pretty, and the revolt, she thought, was good. She hoped that New Zealand would one day develop its own distinctive art. In Maori art, an art much neglected, they had something unique and ftrst-elass. In the prow of a canoe, for instance, there was an art school in itself, and it was a pity that more attention was not paid to Maori design, for much could be based on it. "Some day, when it is bettor known and more widely studied, Maori art will come into its own," added Miss Lee.