ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18784, 18 May 1923, Page 4

ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION

SOME OF THE PICTURES. It is only to be expected that nearly all the pictures in the exhibi tion jvould depict New Zealand scenery. The local artists, of course, have drawn from the beauty spots in and around Wanganui, but artists in other towns have sent works de scribing the glories of nature to be found in the various parts of the Dominion. Here and there arc a few subjects chosen from the Con tinent and Great Britain. New Zealand is fortunate in having a number of artists of undoubted ability, and the present gallery of pictures is extremely interesting as the temporary repository of their art. It gives us an opportunity to view our varied national scenery, and at the same time to see it with the artistic vision and interpretation of these artists.

Among those whose work is well known throughout New Zealand is Mr Nugent Welch. He is worthily represented by four water-colours, each of a different theme. "On tile Western Coast” (No. 27) is a study of a rugged, rocky coast, with the sea broken and seething to the shore. Soft, fleecy clouds servo to ecceutuate, by contrast, the shattered outline of the rocks. The clouds also balance the shadowed and massive rock in the foreground. "Manukau Valley, Paramata” (No. 49), is beautiful in colour tones, and exquisite in feeling. Foreshore, river, and hills draped with a dense mantle of manuka, are united in masterful and charming expression. It is a beautiful picture, and one that has the peculiar merit of gaining in appreciatfdn the more it is studied. Even the grass on the hills suggests the poor clay soil, and brings out, bycomparison with “Spring Meadows” (N. 72), the ability of the artist to depict the scene with fidelity to nature. "Spring Meadows” shows a landscape ol rich pasturage. A belt of pines and some willows are in the middle distance, with blue hills ana soft Boating clouds far away. Th; colour tones are cold, as befitting the season of the year, and spring is revealed in the fresh grass and the willows budding into leaf. “Rain Probable” (No. 59), by tho same author, is well named. Clouds, heavy with moisture, cast a gloomy shadow on distant hills. The grass in the foreground is vivid in colour, but it is the vividness ot grass without the suffusing effect ot sunlight. "The Sheep Wash” (No. 9), and "The Haystick” (No. 19), are two oil paintings by Mr W. Hounsom Byles. The subjects are of tyipcal farm lift in Sussex, and both arc treated with equal charm of colour, life and movement. The figures are particularly good in each picture and as an artistic expression of activitj on the farm the pictures are full of power.

"Coastline, Akaroa” (No. 8), by A. E. Baxter, is charming in colour and perspective. The foreground is well treated. In composition tliere is something to bo desired. “Blue Bells” (No. 165), by W. Hounsom Byles, is a very effective water-colour of a wood with a sward ot beautiful flowers, an armful of which have been gathered by the young woman in the centre of the picture. "Spring” (No. 166), by the same artist, is a striking picture in oils of children playing under the blossoms of an old apple tree. Botn are brilliant in colour, with evidence of very careful work.

Miss Grace Butler is represented by some very attractive works, and varied in character. "The Source ot the Bealey” (No. 31) and “Glacier Ice” (No. 42), are especially noteworthy for their clever revelation of the beauties and tho freezing temperature of scenery in the Southern Alps. "Summer” (No. 35), is treated broadly and with vigour. The same may be said of “On the Otira Coaching Road,” and both ar u rich in colour.