The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-19
THE ART EXHIBIT.
Excellent Work shown by All the
Local Artists.


To-day through green woods will we
run is the verse that enters the mind on
passing through the door of the exhibit
Mr.. J. Otis Adams has made an exquisite
selection in his view, No. 8, "On the Road
to Metamora." The road runs by the side
of a perennial stream of transparent water,
and is lost at the foot of hill that fills
the picture; a plodding hay load gives life
to the road, and at the left clump of
following trees affords distance to this
snug-sheltered landscape. No. 5, by Mr..
Adams, is a woods lot back of everything,
with a road or farm track which is 1.-The
bare possibility of going somewhere" The
foreground of this work is mass of power
full, melting color in MOSES, grasses, bushes
and trees Were the background more
highly finished the picture would be one of
the greatest ornaments in the collection. A
picture cannot be sufficiently finished where
the beholder must dance about in all direc
lions in order to get the right light and to
make out what is intended to appear in the
indistinct background. AS it is, the picture
is not ''niggled" nor dryly painted; it car
ries WELL it calls attention from the
farthest corner of the room, and is one of
those airy solitudes before which the land
scape lover can sit and think down hours
to moments" No. g "A December Flood
by Mr.. ADAMS, SHOWS rush ana now OF Il
great body. of water through billy farm
land, is a fresh celebrating, still verdant
winter landscape and this picture Is being
considered by the Art Association with
view to purchasing. The picture is painted
on burlaps.
The autonomy of art is complete: it does
not have to teach anybody anything, it does
not have to improve anybody, 1t does not
have to elevate, its only object is to make
ture by Mr.. II. r. McGinniss, named Duck
Creek" is one to charm away all weary
thoughts about self This artist, who dear
ly loves glowing color has here given the
brilliant blue of a summer sky reflected in a
stream that flows toward the foreground,
broadening as it flows, and its intense azure
foilS the ciinging lights of distant hill
tops
People are made so that they love to see
a portraiture OF nature, though no more
than carved leaf, and there is in some
works of art a something more that cam
not be put into words quality that gives
pleasure b, beyond the mere resemblance to
the Fog is a picture that has the charm
inexplicable. 1t is a fog, blown in on the
seashore, a fog being dissolved by the heat eat
sands, the tide is going out. leaving small
pools in the, white, sand; the waves recede
in light ripples and the dry seacoast shrub
berry begins to show itself through the thin
ming mist on the tunes in the distance.
Miss Alice Woods has a study done in
off in an hour. which is not in the eata-
logue. 1t hangs ON the platform. 1t is a
Study of nude full-length figure.
Miss Bessie Hendricks shows Study Fig
ure'' in water color. a stalwart boy. drawn
with firmness and decision. Among Miss
Stevenson's work is Girls Head" in oil,
quite superior. a face of the soft, intensely
feminine, pulpylipped. undecided, red-head-
ed type, pleasing TO contemplate.
A picture by Miss King, ION the Quay,
Etaples,' is remarkable; the sunlit sands,
the blue sea- the sturdy, staggering fig
ures Of sailors i'm this picture have not the
uncertainty and INDIGESTION usual to fem
fniO ltrf fpEt f,xr
a masculine fist Her picture of spring
hanging above the above mentioned paint
ing, is executed with intellect and senti-
ment is finely varied in color has wonder
fully hard rocks, and small as ii is sug-
gests the boundless, fenceless hillsides of
woody waste country.
The picture gallery is the rendezvous OF
good society; one can pass a delightful half
hour there.