WHAT NEXT?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT NEXT?

FEMININE VERSATILITY A WINDOW DISPLAY ARTIST After two years' work in London an Irishwoman, Mrs. Katharine Pearce, has attained the distinction or becoming the only woman window display artist in England, with her own workshops and studios, says a <;orresponden ; in the Sydney Morning Herald. A nine-foot long model of the (.Treat Eastern," "made as a rush order tor the Lord Mayor's Show, the Christmas displavs ir a series of nine windows in one of London's largest restaurants, and window displays for national advertisers for which she has executed as many as 20,000 duplicates, are among the commissions ,which have been putting her into the limelight, and she has recently been approached to supply a Centenary display for a large Melbourne departmental store. An enviable amountyof world travel, residence in the East, where her husband is an engineer, and work or a dozen different types, ranging from art teaching to horse training, journalism. Red Cross nursing, and lecturing m psychology, have formed her apprenticeship for her enterprise in a sphere where her success depends on her ability to appeal to the widest public possible. In addition, she has a flair for history and an unquenchable enthusiasm for ships and travel. As a girl, Mrs. Pearce followed what was almost a family tradition by becoming an artist. She studied in Paris and London, and she sold " hundreds of pictures " —so many that she wasn t always able to recognise them when she saw them again years later. She also designed some ship interiors and hotel decorations, but it was only two years ago, after she had. quite by accident, arangeil a shop window display, and it had attracted interest and many inquiries, that she decided to go into business as an advertising displav artist. This has developed until she does shop stands, shop fronts, dioramas and stage sets. She has her own London workshop, and wheu necessary employs workers in a factory outside London. She was the first to make use of chromium-faced plvwood in window display. One of her most spectacular commissions was the making of the " Great Eastern model for the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company for the Lord Mayor's Show. .