NEW ZEALAND ARTIST

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 102, 27 October 1936, Page 17

NEW ZEALAND ARTIST

EXHIBITION IN LONDON

i (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, October 7. An exhibition of 100 excellent watercolour paintings was given in London this week by the New Zealand artist, | Miss Myrtle Lee, formerly iof,;Welling-j ton. A few were inspired by New Zealand scenes, but the majority were views and points of interest seen by this artist on her many travels.' One of special interest to New Zealand, however, was an altar piece (in tempera)," which is under offer to St. Thomas's Church, Auckland. It is "orthodox" only in so far as the Virgin and the Child are depicted, and two saints arc shown ministering to them. One is St. Thomas in a bishop's clothes and the other is King Charles I. The former holds a carpenter's set square and the martyr. king is presenting a crown of thorns. ; The , background shows the silhouette of Rangitoto. painted in purple. The three sets of figures are framed in Gothic, arches, formed by "punga" ferns, the feathery leaves making an attractive setting. A Maori panel pattern is also attractively worked into the base of the picture. Designed for decorative purposes the scene is purposely "flat" in perspective. Predominating colours are blue and purple. When in England Miss Lee makes her home at Bovey Tracey. near Exeter, and she haVfound in Exeter Cathedral the inspiration for several attractive paintings. These are original in design and execution!- A pleasing feature of Miss Lee's work is that none of it is tainted with the "tar brush" of stereotyped design. Each subject is approached in a different point of view and thought. A particularly attractive painting is a scene at a Mohammedan religious ceremony at Tangier. The Mohammedan has an intense dislike of being sketched, and JVHss Lee was obliged to make a rough sketch at the scene by subterfuge; but her impression is excellent and the hooded men lounging round a wall listening to a central figure squatting before a glowing brazier have the subtle air ot romance always associated with the Arab. Miss Lee works in.partnership with Miss Florence M. Green; whose wood engravings are stamped with originality...