CRITICAL STREET ARTIST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23599, 8 September 1938, Page 8

CRITICAL STREET ARTIST

PARIS AND CHELSEA TRAVELLER IN TWENTY-SEVEN COUNTRIES "SHOCKING TASTE” i From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Aug. 15. From time to time, attention is directed to street artists of talent who establish in pitch in some centre of London where there are many passers-by. Trafalgar square, Piccadilly, and Hyde Park corner are localities in demand, and good work is frequently available ait small price. The Evening News tells the accompanying story:— Jus! round the corner from the National Gallery, along towards the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery, a young man stands beside some of the pictures he has painted. “ Only a few yards between my pictures and the great ones in the gallery —so near and yet so far! ”he said. There is a story behind those pictures—the story of the efforts of 22-year-old David Thomas to make a name for himself in the world of art. For the time being, at any rate, he has chosen the way of the pavement artist. STUDIED IN PARIS “I am a Londoner, and I always wanted to be an artist. I studied at Chelsea Art School and in Paris, but things being as they are. I am a pavement artist now,” said Mr Thomas “ I have done all sorts of jobs. X have painted scenery in a music hall: played the guitar in a band; played music in the London streets and I have been a waiter, too. “Then I took a job on a tramp steamer, scrubbing the decks. Altogether, I have visited 27 countries all over the world—but I have gone on painting. “ I was in Paris until early this year, selling my pictures on the boulevards and in the cafes. I was able to do some studying at the same time. 25 PICTURES—OUTSIDE “During the Royal Academy Exhibition my pitch was outside Burlington House, I was the only man with 25 pictures at Burlington House —but mine were outside. “I have, of course, to think about the commercial side when I pick my subjects, and I exhibit mainly scenes of London and Paris. “I always like to have some decent studies on hand as well as the more ‘ commercial ’ ones. But, you know, the man in the street has shocking taste in art. Nine times out of ten it is the worst pictures that sell the best.”