ART AND THE CHILD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22400, 23 October 1934, Page 14

ART AND THE CHILD

MR H. V. MILLER’S INTERESTING EXHIBITION

The further one goes in the study of education the more one finds oneself thinking tlvnt a child is a miniature storehouse of potentialities and that the only teacher worth his -salt is the one who will help him to discover them and encourage him in their healthful development. Education can be of two kinds. There is the kind that, regarding the child as a barren stem which somehow must be made to resemble a flower, concerns itself with sticking petals of knowledge upon him until such a semblance is gained, and there is the kind that sees him not as a stem, but as a green bud, closely folded, and so allows the bud to unfold gradually until a flower appears. The result in both eases may seem to be the same, but as a matter of fact the first flower is an artificial one, while the second is real. Yet how often docs a child have a teacher possessing enough wisdom to let his blossoming be real? Too often knowledge is imposed upon him so completely that he goes through life identified with it, believing himself to be the false flower that education has painstakingly made of him, and utterly ignorant of what he would actually have been had his own potentialities been unfolded and developed. There was opened- on Saturday afternoon, in the Studio of Arts and Crafts, Education Building, Moray place, an exhibition of paintings that must cause educationists much pleasure. It is the work of Mr Harry V. Miller and his students, and is important because certain sections of it definitely show what happens when children are introduced to art-by somebody who believes in teaching from the “unfolding” aspect. To see the results that follow when such methods are used is in the nature of a revelation. It appears almost unbelievable that children could have made the pictures with which some of the walls are hung. There are three sections of students’ work—paintings by senior students, work by students of the Studio of Arts and Crafts, and Forbury School work. It is the last two that are, perhaps, most remarkable:—

On the desks devoted to the Forbury School work are shown some 40 -examples of class work in crayons and linoents by the Art Club of the school. The aim has been to use definite colour and to secure balancod arrangements. Classes represented are mostly Standards IV and V, while a special group show the work of Standard ITa, and the whole is extraordinarily satisfying. The students of the Studio of Arts and Crafts are mostly primary school children who attend a Saturday morning class in the studio room. The posters are original in design, and are the students’ own work. They aim at efficiency and legibility, though the pupils have been doing this work for only seven months. On the next line are water colours by other members of the studio, among those whose work is shown being: Robert Leslie, James Thomson. Vnl Couch, Arthur Smith, Joyce M'Crao, Pat Gardiner, Graham Tait, and James Tucker. Section two—Paintings by senior students—is interesting from another point of view. It proves—to go back to onr first metaphor—that, no matter how much it may be smothered, the bud does not die, and. given the right treatment, will unfold and discover itself at any age. The work, stimulating the imagination as it does, makes one feel that if some seniors without previous training could paint pictures like these, others could do likewise. What has become of those half-formed longings to draw and paint that once possessed us? ■ Are they so dead after all or are they still there waiting to he realised? The question, faced by the answer provided by the paintings of the senior students, no longer seems quite so hopeless ns before. In this section there are four outstanding exhibitions, “ A Bear,” by David Dalziel; “ Bobby,” by Mrs N. Thomson.; “Flower Study,” by Mavis Steadman, and the portrait drawings of Miss Jackson.

Finally there are the paintings of Mr Harry V. Miller himself—l 3 oils and 28 water colours. Their beauty lies in the fact that they present familiar scenes in a way that makes them significant ami memorable—for instance, in the water colour section, the harbour series—eight studies of our own Otago Harbour —presenting the subject in a charming variety of colour and composition; “After Rain,” also a familiar landscape made outstanding by its unusual combination of greens; “Lake Hayes.” a lovely thing with a subtle unity of colour; and “Aparimn.” suggesting all the spaciousness of the Southland plains. The oils include “ Winter Landscape," a harmony of white and' warm browns, and beside it “ Last of the Snow,” with.its clever blending of refreshing greens; “Spring Flowers,” which is a sketch of sunny colours; and “ Peninsula Landscape,” showin" a composition of varied greens. Finally there are two decorative pen illustrations for a poem.

The exhibition will remain open until next Saturday. On Saturday, at the opening. Mr Harry V. Miller discussed and explained from the catalogue the works of, his students, especially those os' the children of Forbury School and of the Studio of Arts and Crafts. The catalogue itself was interesting on account of an interesting linocut which decorates the cover. Among those present at the opening function were Mesdamcs Fiulayson, Thomson. Charlton Edgar. Rosevear, D. D. Steadman, A. Fleury, Taylor, J. Graham, Bowbyes, Corley, N. Thomson, Mcldrum, Charles Pope, and J. Kelly, and Misses Avice Bowbyes, D. M'Cuskcr, D. M'Lean, E. M'Lenn, L. and L. Sullivan, 8,. Sincock, J. M'Crae, K. Earland,, M. Steadman, E. Steadman. Lusk (21. Vivienne Kelly, M'Leod, Hancock, Lexiq Macartlmr, Edna Thomson, and Mollv Rosevear, and Messrs Russell Clark, Charlton Edgar, D. D. Steadman, G. L, Taylor, R. H. Eraser, Rodney Kennedy, A. IT. O’Keeffe, M'Cullough, W, Grant, F. Charlton, J. Graham, A. Fleury, W. Rosevear, D. Dalziel, E. Dalziel, and R. Pope.