The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12


almost everyone in California writes
plays. The school children presented
| one OF their own composition while
was at Berkley that was simply cap
ital But the highbrow atmosph ere
| of Carmel by -the-Sea is not particularly
Joyous, though it has it's funny side
| can best explain ii, L think with
| this incident One morning l called
at the home of particularly clever
member of the cult, a woman of vast
Iintellect, married TO a man who has
iwritten number of deep and gloomy
Itreatises on some darkly abstruse and
scientific subject. 1t was about 1890
| when l went in and as we were hav-
ling our very nice little chatAshe talk
ling down" to me in a. very accom-
modating manner-her wise looking
little son sat and listened. Finally he
llooked Up at his mother and bightly
exclaimed: oh, do you know l haven't
had any breakfast Isn't that funny?
And his eyes swere quite round with
the interest in this little detail of his
thighbrow existence"
But it was naturally the artists,
after ALL that claimed her interest both
in Monterey where her paintings were
done and in San Francisco. Jules
Guerin is at San Francisco, where is
a colony of famous American artists
whose duty it is to plan the art de-
tdllS Vi the coming eNpOSltlOH.
From an art standpoint" says Miss
Douglas, "the exposition promises to
be great. Some of the buildings are
complete. One is after the ADOBE type,
with the softness and richness OF its
colors. and the others will also be har-
monious. Jules Guerin is looking after
that.
In San Francisco this summer sew
eral prizes, the size of which made COM
DefiTjOn worth vUb M h.,
the Mason -McDuffie company for the
best poster advertising st. Francis
Wood, which they We're opening. Nine
hundred posters were submitted and
of the number was one by Miss Doug
las, the second poster that she has
drawn, the first having been one drawn
here for the local Art club year ago
Her criticisms on this monster poster
she. regards as the most gratifying
feature of her stay in California. Il
did not win first prize" she admits. nor
second, third or fourth, which did not
surprise me as took part in the con-
test more for experience than anything
else. But the Judges were most kind
in their criticisms, one even favorina'I
it as second, and as 1t was one of 80
selected from the 900 to be exhibited
on tour in California this fall | felt
that 1t received much more recogni-
tion than / had hoped. When it IS re-
turned to me expect to. place it with
my exhibition of pastels which I will
show in November Hf
Miss Douglas pastels represent four
weeks of sketching in. the vicinity of
Monterey. They are different in treat
ment from all of her past paintings
and those who admire the bold, dash
ing style of her Spanish. pictures will
like these for the same quality, though
they differ in theme and composition,
L. t.,4- Il 1T n .
trees, those great gnaried elms cling
ing fiercely to the crags and bending
down to look unafraid into the deep
chasms below. She has painted gianr
eucalyptus tree standing SOLITARY in
some lonely section of the old Span
ish cemetery or towering between. two
squat little adobe cottages earessinG
them both with its long arms like a
mother. The same favorites are repeat
ed several times in her sketches and
they are SO nearly human aud she
has worked among them so constantly
that she says, 81 know all these trees
by their first names
Everything the sunlight falls on out
there gets a wonderful gold tone and
the trees and the deep blue bay with
Its rocks and purple border are bathed
in a mist in some of her sketches,
which softens. charmingly, the brill
lance of the perpetual California
color
There is a decided suggestion of
Maxfield Parrishs dashing work in
Miss Douglas work; one done. ;ecent-
ly just before she left California when
the trees had begun to burn, especial-
ly suggests him in the po1a handlings
of its colors. ~ ~
This spirit is again noted in a paiat-
ing of two Jerusalem Expresses. which
are clinging to the rocks Iat. Point
Lobos The cliffs are purple AMI grey,
the sea a deep, dense blue-;and those
trees whose network of btgsToots Cling
so desperately to the rocks, eseem 10
have been twisted and torn III SOME
great struggle They have apparently
grown out of the rocks and the Wind
has blown them about and Whipped
them, bending and twisting. their
branches but they are like, giant con
querors that have BEEN warped t,ild
manned in a contest, which has but
added to their strength ,Toia cartoon
list who saw the painting of the old
cypress trees they assumed actual per-
sonalities, as ono would have expect
| ed them to do in the eyes of a car
toonist. "They are like twisted old
Witches" he remarked "and these in
the moonlight are like tall ghosts VI
trees" And again in a quaint repre-
sentation of street in Monterey, the
| trees in the background, are like teath-
er busters trying to touch each other
across the path.
Miss Douglass has caught tho Cali
fornia spirit; she brought back to The
green and gold of Birmingham's au-
tuinn the eucalyptus tree and the, old
Spanish missions and the adobe houses
with their red roofs. the blue sea with
| the cliffs coming up out of them like
chalk; the skies with their piled-up
| clouds and the simmer of the sun and
mist the yellow grass and the scarlet
| geraniums and the violet mountains
And she has painted them with the
| joyousness of one who might have
looked the world over and found this
l,.Io hnc