The Republican journal., 1918-12-12

| The children of the Unitarian church
will be given a Christmas party at the
church Dec. Gath at p. M There will
he Christmas tree under the direction
of real Santa Claus. Mrs. Clement
W. Wescott is chairman OF the commit
tee and will he assisted by Mrs Charles
R. Coombs, Mrs. Fred A. johnson, Mrs.
Wilmer ]. Dorman, Mrs. Ben Hazeltlne,
Mrs. s. A. Parker, Mrs. John A. David,
| Mrs. George R. Doak and MIS-. ). 5. l..
Shute.
Mrs. Florence A. Warner of Portland,
the director of the Maine Agricultural
and Industrial League, was in Belfast last
Wednesday and addressed a number OF
| women interested in the States food sur
vey. 1t is the purpose of the League to
canvass the city and county with the In
tention of ascertaining what food prod
ucts are raised, what is consumed at
home. what marketed, what canned
for winter use Many minor, but not
less urgent questions in regard to Coop
Grafton will be matter OF record in the
canvass. The League was obliged to 60
to Massac husetts the past year for $500
pigs that should have been raised in
Maine. and have also brought in to the
State about 600 sheep and beef cattle. 1t
! also plans to open demonstration farms
and one of 5000 acres is already in Cum
berland county. The government will
provide farms for returned soldiers and
will under certain conditions consider
other applications after the soldiers are
cared for. Maine in the past has raised
only about one quarter of what she con-
sumes. The Belfast League organized
with Mrs. Cecil Clay, president; Mrs. c.
W. Wescott vice president; Miss Alice |.
Written, secretary and treasurer.
Belfast's well known artist, Hart L.
Woodcock is in Bangor at present with
some of his Maine coast pictures and the
News says of the exhibit opening:
Stormy weather kept many away from
the exhibition in the Public Library build
ing last night, under the auspices of the
Bangor Society of Art, of water color
paintings by Hart L. Woodcock, that rare
Maine genius of the brush whose works
have won so large vogue and to whom
we are accustomed to look each year for
new and finer expressions of natures
beauties as they are revealed to him in
wide travels. But the fame of the painter
was enough to decide some scores to brave
the elements, and they found in the ex-
hibition plenty to recompense them for
the discomfort caused by the weather.
In the art room of the library there
have been arranged attractlvely eighteen
large framed pictures and tWenty-four
sketches, the subjects being for the most
part scenes along the coast of Maine and
in the sunny island of Nassau, with few
Dutch land and seascapes and one still
fe n oil.
Of Mr. Woodcock's skill in transferring
to canvas the rich tropical colorings of
the Bahamas there is ample evidence in
many American galleries and homes-hiS
genius as revealed in these works being
recognized by critics everywhere And
in this collection he seems to have lost
nothing of his delicacy of touch and
warmth of coloIing.
The peculiar vividness of the sea blues
and green's In those waters gives to those
pictures distinction so marked that the
uniformed may think the coloring exag-
gerated; but it is all very faithful and
very beautiful. East street, Nassau, seems
to hold peculiar charm for this painter
the gorgeous Towering shrubs shower
ing radiance over cream-tinted garden
walls, the quantity imposing gates of
mansion grounds, the picturesque roofs,
and beyond, at the streets end a glimpse
of the turquoise sea.
But it is in the Maine coast scenes,
chiefly in the neighborhood of Criehaven,
on the far sea isle of Matinicus, that the
Woodcock art finds its most striking ex-
pression-and, to many, its greatest sue
cess These are for the most part inspir-
ing surfs, great rolling seas of livid green
rolling, crashing in upon rugged rocks,
breaking in feathery fury and boiling,
swirling in snowy confusion on the sands
The very breath and tonic of the sea is
in these paintings, and there is about them
the suggestion of tremendous power, and
the ceaseless throb of oceans great pulse.
Only man who knows and loves these
northern seas could with such fidelity
translate to canvas the green GOODNESS
that is in the charging tides, the dull
white and rust of the aged rocks and the
dull greys and puppies of warning skies
that reach away in dim distances over
the swing and heave of the waters.
There are sketches of Maine wood
lands, bits of the Holland coast and other
canvases that will attract attention and
praise, for there is truth and beauty in
each of them. The entire collection is
worthy of all the good things said of it
by the visitors last night, and it should
attract all art lovers in the remaining
days of the exhibition, which run through
Dec. 18th.