The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1898-01-06
EDUCATION IN ART.
The Methods of Teaching Now In Vogue.
Designing Merits Careful Attention.

The Methods of Teaching Now In Vogue.
Designing Merits Careful Attention.
What a difference is discernible be-
tween the first artistic attempts Of chill
dren today and those to which previ-
Gus geneExS1on put their hands!
The mode of 30 years ago based its
notions of high art on the basest ideals.
Wool work was the rage-wool work,
moreover, that ran riot in all the most
hideous shades which it ever entered
into the mind Of man to invent Pat
terms were confined to the stiffest and
biggest flowers. The tints nature sug-
gested were Systematically ignored, and
podgy cushions and impossible bed
spreads were the result. So much for
the art of the needle Brush and pencil
could achieve nothing better welded by
the hands and by the taste that reveled
in the denominations of Berlin wools-
Stiff water color drawings, wherein
unearthly flowers and fruit were depict
ed, or staring landscapes wherein GER
tain faulty perspective outwelghed all
the miuor considerations of composition
and atmosphere; or again. marine
sketch with a sea which might have
been taken for a bayfield, but for Sc
yerely unnautical looking bark in the
middle distance, were hung on the pa
ternal walls, to be perpetual eyesore
to the rising generation. These draw
ings were always from the fiat, and
that being the case it was out of the
question that they could educate the
eye to any sense of form or indeed of
actual color.
To paint accurately from the fat is
easy Of accomplishment to any one with
the least technical skill, but to distin-
guish between the many t1nts IN one
scrap of cloud, of greensward or of dis
lance in the open air is a very different
matter 1t takes the artist to find the
dominant note in a scheme of rich and
varied coloring, and he can do SO only
because from his youth his eye has been
trained to see and initiate nature as she
is, not as she appears when painted. A
child whose natural instincts prompted
her in this, the only true direction to-
ward the divine in art, had her aspira-
tions promptly checked by the folly of
parents, who prevented all future growth
by an insensate desire to see immediate
fruits Fortunately opinion latterly has
veered round generally to a more rea-
SOlldD10 LhO NCcAlO III
something to show lessons with con-
slant qualification, and the 'desirability
of qualities trife more solid is grad
| ually iInpressing itself on the minds OF
| all.
The methods of imparting education
| both in art and all other branches now
in vogue are probably an outcome Of
| this feeling, and from the very begin
| ming the youngsters have chance Of
feeding and charging any natural apt
| itude for form and color which they
/ may possess by being taught to draw
things as they are, not as they lool
| when drawn, often imperfectly, by 9th
| ers.
| In many of the schools from the yer!
outset the elements of coloring and de
| sign are set before the tiniest worker
| in the exercises which they do, will
/ colored papers, interlacing in pattern
| with different colored strips. OF cours,
models have to be employed in orde
| that by copying the little minds cal
grasp some idea of the task before them
but it not infrequently happens that on
or two in class show ability and orig
inality entirely beyond the rest, ant
now and then achieve work really strik
ingly excellent.
| Designing, indeed, is a subject which
merits the careful attention of all inter
ested in the training of young intellects
1t is, in the first place, undoubtedly
gift, neither to be created nor who'll,
taught, but capable of great develop
ment by means of rightly Directs
study. Those who are gifted in this re
spect are not the least lucky of mortals
and those who are devoid of it can tax
courage from the thought that it is
branch of art for which aptitude may b
fostered. Its uses are SO obvious, espe
cially for those whose labors are chief
manual, that it is no wonder that at
tention is being so largely directed t
it's study in metropolitan art schools an
educational institutions generally at tn
present time. The aim is to foste
artistic tendencies for everyday use an
not in any sense to turn out artists i
the ordinary sense The education is tn
training of eye and hand and the direct
ing into orthodox channels of the ez
travagant activities of untrammele
imaginations.