The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-01

Keith has found new theme for his
cunning brush, and the paints he mixes
with the spirit-touch of nature.
This summer he went among the red
woods for the first time, and he received q
revelation. Now he is ardently at work in
his studio on several canvases which are
steadily growing into delightful express
slons of one of the most charming OF ma
lures combinations of form and mood.
he brightens here penetrating ray OF
sunshine, deepens misty shadows IN
forest depth, or more da1kly puppies the
shaded heights of a majestic trunk that
rises through a wonderful succession OF
soft color tones. The redwoods have IN
spired Keith, and now they are apt TO pc
come as characteristic of his work as MS
sturdy oaks with pastoral surroundings
and his scenes in the Sierras. HIS pictures
will be new story of the California red
woods
The redwood forests have in some de-
gree inspired most people who nave oeeh
among them. They are always interest
ing from whatever point OF view they are
seen. Found nowhere in the world put
along a strip of the California coast tney
are one of the famous treasures OF the
State, and they are pecuhar, 100 as NOT
everybody knows, in almost every charac-
teristic. Few people see them alke;
TO some. nature is variously elo-
ouent in the redwoods, as elsewhere, and
the solitude. the majesty, the myriad
forms of beauty and ali that is not wholly
tree and leaf and hill TO them, bears some
thing that is seen and deeply 1eIt, put can
hardly be suggested to another' 1heY are
few and rare who can declare with Elmer
son:
One harvest from thy furrowed field
Homeward brought thy oxen oxen strong;
a second crop thine acres yield,
Which gather IN song
The painter may rank with the poet in
the priesthood of nature. If he has the
Unborn Gift he may interpret her meanings
on canvas as the poet may bear her mes
sages to those who can receive them.
Some artists attempt this feat and few
succeed in adding to their portrayals of
nature worthy feeling with which they
view her, as the poet may combine beauty
and greatness of thought with artistic
rhyme and rhythm of verse.
This is what Keith is trying to do with
the redYpods. He does not belong to the
school OF art which regards kindly cop
per kettle or dead duck as thing to be
painted in mastery way 'for arts sake"
In his impressionist style he puts on his
canvases things that please for the sub
iects themselves as we'll as for the merit OF
the work. He wants the poetry of nature
in his subjects, and he makes an effort to
express it there as he sees and feels it.
This point of view is the most interesting
one from which to regard keith's new
work in relation to the California red
woods. He has been to them and has
come back full of their unwritten songs,
and it is the poetry of the redwoods that
he talks about and is struggling to express
with his brush.
The artist does not talk as eloquentIy as
he paints, but his brief sentences and his
pictures together told an interesting story
in his studio the other day. He had no
conception of how many thousand feet of
lumber one of his big trees would make,
but he told what he thought were the
beauties of the redwoods.
He went into the redWoods this summer
because his friend, Charles A. Keller, who
knows and loves nature, induced him to.
For years he has spent his vacations amid
the foothills and canyons of the SierraS.
Following Keeler's advice he went to Wat
sons, two miles back of Cazadero. and
spent two or three weeks up there in vir-
gin forests by Austin Creek, making color
sketches early and late.
"What were my first impressions? Well,
I thought Here is the place for me to
paint he said. when l got out in the
woods the first thing that struck me was
the solemnlty there. That was the chief
thing l felt all the time. The larger trees
give the ever-present sense of majesty, but
that solemnity was what felt most"
The spirit of his work he spoke of soon.
THAT feeling is what want to get into
my pictures" he went on, land it is a diff
ficult thing for painter to reproduce the
state of feeling he has. That is what an
artist should do, though. He interprets
nature. His pictures should not, to my
mind, be simple copies of the objective