Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-08


tons
At Gloucester, during the summer months
there was quite colony of Washington
artists. Mrs. Child and Mr.. Curtis were
for several weeks at the hotel, Miss Perrie
was fortunate enough to obtain for the sea-
son the studio occupied in past summers by
Everett Warner (who, by the way, has writ
ten to engage it for next year,, Miss At
water, Miss Jackson and Miss Porter
shared a commodious old building, which
they themselves converted from a shop into
a most attractive studio, and Miss Clara
Saunders and a number of other students
were cnSconced in a studio not far distant.
Then there were the tranSentS-artiSts and
art lovers from the home city-who stopped
over week or two on their way farther
north and helped to give a local flavor to
the informal Saturday receptions.
Miss Perrie has brought back with her
about two dozen thoughtful water colors,
picturing various scenes in the quaint,
much-painted town. There are boats and
wharves, rocks and sand dunes, marshes
and village streets which, while possibly
commonplace, can never altogether lose
their charm. Miss Ferries work has always
been notable for it's veracity and vigor, but
ty of feeling which places it on a still
higher plane. She has painted not only
literal facts with pleasing freshness, but
she has interpreted her themes with sympa-
thetic understanding. 1t is not little por-
traits of Gloucester which she has brought
home with her, but rather series of i'm
pressions found there and wrought into pic
lures. There is one, for instance of an old
house on wharf, gray and weatherbeaten,
which under common conditions would be
uninteresting in the extreme, but which in
the in-between- time, when the whole world
is gray, has been found full of colorful
suggestion. 1t is not the house but the
light which is CT interest, and it is this
which makes the picture. SO again, in a
study of the harbor made after the sun
had set. Lying between the water and the
sky is the little town, while nearer the OBJ
server are the boats at anchor. 1t is low
in tone, simple and undramatic, but it is
extremely luminous and atmospheric A
third pictures the towers and chimneys of
Gloucester over it's rocky coast line and
fourth interprets, with marked realism
the incoming of a thick sea fog There is
an interesting study of an old hulk left
high out of water by the receding tide and
a no less careful one of the myriad dane
ing reflections of the spars and rigging of
a group of fishing schooners. All are well
handled and each exhibits strong ndividu-
ality. Miss Perrie is locking forward to a
busy winter, for not only is she reorganizing
| her usual class for Monday Wednesday
| and Friday mornings, and her former Sat
| urday afternoon class for beginners but
| during Miss Catherine Critcher's continued
| absence in Europe, she will assume the di-
| rection of the art classes at the Gunston
| Institute.
X X
| Miss Grace Atwater, the secretary of the
Water Color Club, has returned with no
] less interesting portfolio. Some of her sub
! jects are the same as those painted by Miss
| Perrie, but even these have peculiar inter-
| est, inasmuch as they illustrate better than
the others the painters distinctive stand
point Quite number are transcriptions of
| the door-yard gardens which are one of the
| attractive features of the town. One, be-
| side low-roofed white cottage, exhibits
| wealth of gorgeous blossoms. In the CEN
| ter, higher than the caves Of the humble
| dwelling, is a great ciump Of golden glow"
! while clustered closely around, tumbIng
| over each other in their rank growth and
| bloom, are red dahlias. Another, perhaps
! less cleverly handled, but even more ap-
| pealing shows a soping terrace, fenced
| in by prim white palings, a beautiful bed
| of pink phlox, whereas a third pictures
| with admirable effect a tidy walk bordered
/ by Towering roses and green conventional
| shrubs. There also in Miss AtWater'S
| collection some excellent studies of build
| ings several broadly handled transcriptions
| of salt marshes and number of attractive
| compositions in which the Gloucester sail