Evening star., 1935-11-10

In the North Shore Arts Associa-
tion's annual exhibition, last Summer
at Gloucester, Mr.. Woodward was rep
resented by three water colors and
two oil paintings of the sea. One of
the latter was entitled Atlantic"
and represented the swing OF great
waves, rising from greater depths. far
from land The study for this and
for one of the water colorS that he
will show here was made from the
deck of a steamer on one of the Win
ter voyages that it is his habit to
make. Souvenir also of one Of these
trips to the South is a painting of a
curving beach with palm trees border
ing an emerald sea, Where the Trade
Winds Blow"
Evidencing that he is not merely a
painter of the sea. two or more paint
ings of houses with landscape setting
will be included.
The collection will be on view until
the end of November. after which it
is to be exhibited in the Telfair
Academy, SdFdIuldll, va.
p OBERT LAWSON, whose etchings
~ will be placed on view in the Arts
Club simultaneously with Stanley
Woodward's water colors, is an illus
traitor as well as an etcher. In fact,
he was first illustrator and then etcher,
and the latter for a comparatively
short time. Indeed, Mr.. Lawson's as
cent in this field of achievement has
been phenomenal. Less than three
years after he took up etching, John
Taylor Arms, president of the Society
of American Etchers, declared him to
be lone Of the most accomplished
technicians in the field Of American
etching today" and the Society of
American Etchers published one of his
plates for associate members. This
was in 1882.
After studying art in a New York
school, Robert Lawson worked as an
illustrator until 1917, when he spent
TWO years in France as member of
the American Camoufage Section.
After the war he went back to illus
trating, and among the books he has
illustrated are "The Wee Men of
Ballywooden." The Rowing Lobster"
and From the Horn of the Moon" by
Arthur Mason, "Peik" by Barbara
Ring. and The Unicorn with Silver
Shoes" by Ella Young. All of these
gave opportunity for the exercise of
imagination, and also for excursions
into the Land of Make-Believe, to
which he undoubtedly has the key.
The plate issued by the Society of
American EtcherS was of milk-White
Pegasus being shod by denizens of
that land and was entitled I'VE Fix
Flats" In his introduction to this
print, Mr.. Arms, after remarking Law
sons skill as designer and drafts
man, and ''in all the subtleties of the
etcher's medium" says: HE has ex-
plored an entirely new field of subject
matter, and one untouched by any
other etcher in this country-the field
OF gnomes and fairies. of elves and
goblins and sprites-and to his loving
and sympathetic interpretations of
these good people of another life he
has brought a richness and wealth of
imagination, delicacy of translation,
and a whimSicality of expression that
have made of his fairy prints something
more than the fantasies of a highly
imaginative artist; rather are they
conceptions of a milder, kindlier, bet
ter world, where the materialism and
selfishness of our modern existence
give place to those gentler things Of
the spirit which might be ours If only
we would open our hearts to them"
Work Of this character cannot fail
to awaken interest and call forth
praise.
THE special exhibition of water
colors by John e. Thompson,
which opened in the Corcoran Gallery
of Art this past week, to continue
through the 23d of November, is
essentially ponderable, From the cata-
logue list one would envision pictures
of rather commonplace subjects, with
sprinkling of Western landscape
made impressive by mountain ranges.
But these paintings are neither COM
monplace nor traditional They are Of
the new order, which is not fish, flesh
or fowl, or even little red herring
but something quite apart-as for
example are the water colors of John
Marin. Indeed, it is of Marin's paint
ings that these works of Mr.. Thomp-
son make one think-and better
understanding Of the one will un-
doubtedly lead to q fuller conprehen-
sion Of the other.
In an article on John Marin: the
Man and His Work." published in Q
recent number OF The American Mag