PICTURE EXHIBITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22020, 1 August 1933, Page 10

PICTURE EXHIBITION

FINE ARTISTIC COLLECTION A fine collection of Rhona Haszard's paintings was opened at the Bristol rooms yesterday afternoon by Mr P. L. Halsted, president of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society. Mr Halsted said that anyone who had seen Rhona Haszard's work in the gallery at Logan Park wanted to see more of it; therefore, they were thankful to Mr Leslie Greener for giving them an opportunity of seeing this splendid collection. It was work that was appreciated not only in her native land but. abroad, and her pictures had been hung in the Paris Salon by the Society des Artists' Francais. and at the exhibition of the Society of Women Artists, London. The characteristics of her work were virility, versatility, and restrained use of colour, all of which would bear close inspection. In a few general remarks on the value of art, Mr Halsted read the following extract from " An Aspect of Italian Realisation," by Decis Pittoello:—"ln fairly recent times art has been considered merely as a sort of luxury detached from the rest of life, but to-day we understand the meaning of art better. Art is more than a luxury; it is evidence of a wider and better life; it imparts love of beauty, intellectual, and moral refinement, dignity, and freedom to our attitudes and behaviour. It adds emotional motives to our religious feelings; it smooths the relations between men; it completes mir moral conceptions by harmonising the beautiful with the good. It helps our thought by fixing it into plastic forms, and it enlarges our imagination." • In all there are 40 paintings on the walls, arranged in the order in which they were painted, and in that way showing the development of the artist's undoubted talent in her all too short life time. " Morning Calm " is attractive from the simple treatment of the water and the sunshine effects on the slate roofs. " Finistere," which is going to the national collection at Wellington, marks a phase where the artist was feeling her way for form and volume: it is a different class of work from her earlier and more impressionistic method of painting. " Bloomsbury Still Life," which was painted towards the end of her life, gives evidence of a new phase in her development. " In the Marne Vallev," " Early Morning," " A Camaret," and " Moie de Gonliot, Sark," have been secured by the Auckland Gallery. In general, the collection is notable for its exquisite taste in colour, even in the early student work, and for the spontaneity of the work; each picture is sincere in itself, and none of it was painted by rote. Attention may bo

directed to the technique used in the artist's , lino-work. Linos are frequently dead black and white, but here the artist obtains a half-tone with good effect. The exhibition will remain open until Saturday night, closing at 5.30 p.m. Its organiser is Mr Leslie Greener, who was Rhona Haszard's husband.