The School of Art.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5189, 20 December 1884, Page 3

The School of Art.

♦ The School of Art attached to the Canterbury College leads a very quiet, unobtrusive life. Nobody has ever blown its trumpet ; and it is an institution of which it may be truly said it has had to " do good by stealth." If we are not much mistaken, its Directors and the Board of Governors will one day also " blush to find it fame," for the small amount of iaterest at present taken in its doings by the educated and intelligent is astonishing. Time was when the school even needed defending from the critical attacks of those — ignorant of the amount of sheer hard study and preliminary toil necessary to produce the finished artist — who thoughtthe course of work there too severe. That time, happily, has passed away, but the general public is still most indifferent as to what goes on there. It is doubtful if a dozen persons at a time have visited the annual exhibition of work done by pupils during the year, now open at the school. Yet much is to be seen there which will well repay a visit. The majority of the work, the pencil and sepia drawings from the flat and round, the outline studies of geometric forms, the work in crayon and in monochrome — all have their interest for those who take quiet note of the progress made by the pupils ; but nearly all of them are repetitions of what has been before. So far as can be judged, they are neither better nor worse than plenty that has already been done at the school. I'ut in two directions, drawings from the life, and elementary design, great strides have most undoubtedly been made. It is of the latter that we wi6h particularly to speak. The almost universal application of ornamental work to nearly every article made use of in our modern households leaves us for the most part quite insensible to the skill and labour lavished nowadays on all the decorative arts. Now none of that skill is obtainable without the best artistic training. The beautiful patterns and designs adorning every article conducive to the comfort and luxury of our daily life are the outcome of patient thought, hard study, and well directed industry. Mr Blair, the Director of the School of Art, has lately commenced a series of lectures on elementary design. A few of the common flowers are chosen ; the Director takt* one, the dog daisy, the honeysuckle, the rose, as the case may be, explains it botanically, and then gives his pupils some idea of how each may be3t be treated conventionally for ornamental purposes. Messrs Peteisen and Co.'s silver medal, for a series of competitive designs by pupils who have attended these lectures, has brought about a most encouraging result. Everyone who visits the room in which they are displayed, will be both surprised and charmed at the pleasing f oims of ornamentation which trained artistic skill can draw from the commonest flowers. And they will further acknowledge that a school which can so liuk the purely artistic and beautiful with the practical, is doing the very best of work. It must be remembered that such designing is the first step towards the beautifying of every piece of china, earthenware and woollen fabric — that the chintzes, carpets, curtains aud hundred and one things that add comfort to our homes, are adorned by this means too. It is Art holding out the hancPto manufacture, and such a friendship in a country where the latter is just striving for a footing means a great deal for them both. , J ■