Evening star., 1936-04-04
By Leila Mecklin.
LITTLE more than 400 years

~ ago CorteZ captured Mexico.
~ That was A. D. 1920. But in
a the present year of grace, from
all signs and to all appearances, Mex
leo has captured not a single country
but the art world-at-large through her
native art and her native beauty. The
mural paintings of Ribera, Orozco,
SequiroS and others may have caused
bitter contention, but none can deny
that they have powerfully influenced
the art Of today both esthetically and
ethically. And what is more, Mexico
within the past few years has become
not only a mecca for tourists, but a
favorite resort for artists. AS current
exhibitions in our leading art centerS
were at one time filled with pictures
of Gloucester and ProvincetoWn
wharves, shipping and seafaring peo-
pie, now it is Mexican scenes and sub
Jects which take first place. All Win
ter long Wayman Adams has had a
class in Mexico, and last Summer, the
altitude being high, Mexico City and
environs were said to have been in
vaded by art teachers from this coun-
try, on vacation, in considerable num-
bers.
These facts are brought to mind
and given pertinency at this time by
exhibitions of water colors by Eliot
O'Hara and by Mary G. Riley, painted
chiefly in Mexico, which may be seen
simultaneously at the Arts Club and
at the Corcoran Gallery of Art for the
next fortnight or more.
Mr.. OHara's exhibition, which will
occupy the gallery at the Arts Club,
opening tomorrow afternoon and con-
tinuing until April 26, will consist of
his most recent work done during a
sojourn of two or three months dura-
tion in Mexico, whence he has but
lately returned. Undaunted by reports
of bad roads and innumerable diff
culties besetting the optimistic motor
ist, Mr.. O'Hara made the journey from
Washington to Mexico City and return
in his own car, and declares it not
bad, save for possibly stretch of 60
miles where the roadbed had not been
surfaced, the work being under con-
struction. He returned via Santa Fe,
where he remained for a few days,
meeting the artists and sketching. Like
other travellers, he found this city even
more foreign in atmosphere, more
definitely Spanish, than even the cities
across the border.
Mr.. O'Hara did not take pupils to
Mexico or conduct classes there, but
he was, it Is reported, followed about
by ambitious young students, who
watched him work and had many
questions to ask of the author of those
two well-known books on water color
painting, How to Make Water Color
Behave" and How to Make the
Brush Behave" all of which were
answered cheerfully con amore.
Among water colorists, Eliot O'Hara
has today foremost place. He fully
commands his medium and is amaz-
tngly clever in its use. His one and
only danger is that, against which
Whistler used to warn his pupils, of
being too clever. He attains effects
so swiftly and so readily that there
must be at times the temptation to
stop too soon. But this is better than
not stopping soon enough, by all
means. Eliot O'Hara is not school,
trained, but to large extent, self
taught. He began sketching in pencil
rs a paStime and discovering unex-
pected facility went on to water color
painting for which he developed an
almost uncanny aptitude. With a
Guggenheim fellowship he went to
Russia and in remote, unusual places
painted series of water colors which
when exhibited in this country brought
him Immediately to attention. A few
years later, after taking up residence
In this city, he made trip to South
America. visiting leading South Amer
lean countries and painting wherever
he went, the net result of which was
an exhibition in the Corcoran Gallery
under the auspices of the Pan-Amer-
lean Union, and exhibitions in other
cities. Today Mr.. O'Hara is ranked
rs one of the four or five leading water
colorists of America, his works are
invited for the chief exhibitions, they
win prizes, they sell, and at by no
means modest prices. He has a Sum-
mer school of water color painting at
Goose Rocks Beach, near Biddeford,
Me, with almost more pupils regis
tered than can be accommodated. In
cidentally he has conducted classes
for short terms in Savannah, Ga, and
at the University of North Carolina. at
Chapel Hill, as well as here in Wash
ington. He is scheduled for an ex-
hibition in the Argent Galleries, New
York, this month.
His Mexican water colors, which by
the way were exhibited informally in
the Telfair Academy, Savannah, last
month on his way home, are vivid
impressions, swiftly and skilfully tram
scribed. Mr.. O'Hara uses a wide
brush, clear. transparent color, and
does not hesitate to take artistic lib
critics with his subjects. It is the
artists prerogative, he claims, and
IL l. l.