Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-13
ART AND ARTISTS.
An Effort to PopuIarize Winter CoIors-

| An Effort to Popularize Wnter Colors-
Scraps Picked Up i'm the Studios.
A determined effort is being made to bring
water color drawing into public favor. with
what degree of success yet remains to be seen.
There can be no question that painting In
water colors is q noble art, and in its most per-
feet technique it is high art, and those VINO
direct their efforts toward bringing 1t up to It's
proper standard and maintaining it in its right
| full position among the graphic processes are
| deserving of their due need OF praise. bus
| there are many individuals OF less than medl-
ocre talent who have seized upon the growing
| favor for water color as q means OF bringing
themselves and their meaningless productions
| into notice. These people are fond OF calIne
of average ability, even of that somewhat
| fighty and rapidly decaying school. woulG hesl-
tate to admit their fellowship The theory
upon which they appear to proceed would seem
to be that drawing is not in any way essential
to picture, and that the only rule as to color
! is to give US plenty of it and of the crudest
and harshest kind Then, also, in their con con,
work they talk wildly and vaguely about
| poetry and feeling, and the general ization OF
detail. man may possess soul filed with
preston to it in some ineligible manner no
one will ever find 1t out. He need not be ver-
bose, but he must be explicit. Generalizing,
too, is all very well in its way, but except in
CoILdl0 pdTClCuldTS We mlpuI do wen uHucLtdho
to generalize a portrait as a landscape, and the
only excuse for doing either is the lack Of time
or ability to work out the details We may
tell a story without stating every fact nearly or
remotely connected with it, and we may paint
portrait without showing all the minutest de-
tails of the face, SO in painting landscape we
may leave out what we please, but what
aoae With elect truth anG snG" hdey RHy so
nature. To cover sheet Of paper with
patches of color laid on without regard to
drawing andin a purpOseless and haphazard
manner may be an impression" but it is not
an expression; at least, not such as any one can
understand, and it would convey more cor
rect idea of its character and not be treating it
unfairly to call it "splatterdash." Another
favorlte term which the authors of such pro-
ductons are in the habit of applying to their
difference between the boldness of knowledge
and that of ignorance, but those who possess
only the latter often confound the two. The
freedom which comes of skill acquired by long
practice is one thing, and that which Is due to
and if artists seeking fame and fortune do not
recognize the distinction, it remains for dis
eliminating public to do so for them.
"a
Perhaps few Of those who possess pictures
fully appreciate the effect which the frames
and the surrounding objects, particularly the
coloring and decorating Of the walls, has upon
them. The first thing to be done with good
picture is to have it suitably framed, which
does not necessarily mean that it should be
expensively framed; In fact, it is quite possible
to have the frame overpower the picture, IN
which case it rather detracts from it than
otherwise. Frames should Larmonize in tone
with the pictures they inclose and should be
just sufficiently massive to separate it COM
pletely from the wall upon which it hangs, and
when this object is once attained any addi.
tional elaborateness or ornament is usually
entirely superfuous. But the best and most
tastefully framed picture will lose materially
in appearance by being placed upon gorge
ously decorated wall, and the wall itself will
suffer by having pictures upon it. Let either
one object or the other prevail. If the wall is
to be thing Of beauty and delight to the eye,
let it be so. and dispense with the pictures; but
if the latter are to be the chief attraction, keep
the wall of sober tint, or decorated with
some unObtrusive pattern, which will not
divert the attention when the eye rests upon
the pictures.