The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-08
BY ANNIE KENDRlcK WALKER.

\ KNOW of few as interesting places
 these Lenten days than the studios ! where Birmingham women, with pal lette and brush gather for long, delightful hours two or three mornings each week. Even when the elevator is not running, these artistic women climb unmurmuring- ly four flights of stairs in the Watts building. for there many artists are to be found in all their artistic glory, and the studios, with their big windows letting in great floods of winter sunshine. It is here that they gather, lay aside their furs and donning the artists aprons. begin to scrape away at their pallettes.
 It Is not at all the place for gossip, re- gardless of how interesting the gossip may be and as every one goes out for tea in the middle of the day, this Lenten at all nice and gossipy.
 The very atmosphere of studios is so different from what most people inn agine 1t to be. Some people have the idea that everything is continually fin disorder and that studio to be quite ideal must be dusty and cobweby They would be quite staggered if they ventured In some of Blrmingham's luxurious studios, where a cobweb is an unknown quantity and where every precaution Is taken against the accumulation of. dust.
 The studios are immaculate, particu- larly the keramic studios, where the loveliest porcelains are decorated and where about the long tables are gathered delightful coteries of women with palette and brush.
 of ,,erlaa !, in their cabinets many beautiful examples of their own work, and some of the hand somest iardinieres, punch bowls and toast cups that have been seen In the studios this winter were decorated by Birming- ham women. The firing is done in the studios here and there Is every facility for doing the most beautiful examples of decorative art
 Birmingham, fortunately, Is able to rank with more noted art centers in the matter of her keramic studios. The result should not be at all surprising, for the influence of these studios far from creating pure ly spasmodic interest in china decora- ton, is recognized as highly instructive and educatve.
 China painting Is beng pursued no longer as pastime, a fad, but us a serious study, appealing to the artistic woman who desires that the decorative art in her home shall oe expressive of something beyond the stereotyped designs she pur- chases from the factories. With the ex- amples of china decoration that may be seen here in some of the studios that were opened few years ago, notably those of Mary E. Raulston and Carrie Watson Morgan, there Is the very best oppor- tunity for studying the advance that has been made in decorative art.
 The woman who Is ambitious to rank as connoisseur, that she may be able to distinguish the artistic from the cheap and gaudy, will find that in no way will her tastes become more cultured with the result that she may rely on her own judgment in the selection of her decorated porcelains, than by applying herself to the study of china painting A personal knowledge, however slight will be the safest guide to her in selecting her collec- tion
 Every woman who devotes any time at all to china painting quickly realizes that its educatve value is limitless.
 While she way not be able to always gratify her artistic tastes, she is learning