Evening star., 1949-02-27
! Art
Water Colors Make
Appealing Display;
Fitzgerald Prefers
Seas and Ponds
By Florence S. Berrymon

The Washington Watercolor
Club, the city's second Oldest pro-
fessional artists organization,
opened last Sunday a members
show at the Arts Club, composed
of 40 watercolors, pastels and
graphic arts by thirty-odd men,
bers, some of them nonresident.
Pleasing subject matter, tradi-
tional approach in most instances.
and technical proficiency, make
the exhibition an agreeable one.
Sixteen fairly large watercolors,
with considerable carrying quality,
comfortably fill the gallery walls.
Among them are Frederic Whit
aker's Brooklyn Bridge" domi-
mating the street corner in his
foreground, and urban scenes by
Carl Nyquist c'M Street Stores')
and Rowland Lyon c"Cape May
Gingerbread both of them de-
picting commonplace buildings,
but in direct, cheerful ways. Prem
tbs Taylor has a handsomer sub
ject, Library Gate at Charleston
College," almost hidden by foliage
making a leafy tapestry in paint.
Eliot O'Hara had the most roman
tic architectural subject of them
all-"Auld Reekie" in Edinburgh,
but he has handled it in such
streamlined way that it is one of
the shows nearest approaches to
abstract painting.
Several other Wauercolorists
went to the tropics for their sub
ject matter. Katherine Sunny
shows a Street in Guatemala, "
rather broadly handled. Edith
Hoyt, who has travelled extern
sively in recent years, attended
the opening of the exhibition in
which her Mexican Landscape" Is
included. Richard Reasoner is
represented with Key West
harbor scene. in a predominantly
violet tonality. while Eugene Eel
tons Panama Motif" pastel,
is rich in greens.
! Edith McCartney's immaculate
/ technique makes the little golden
haired girl who sat for her pastel
portrait, appear to be very, very
good" with not hair out of place,
nor a wrinkle in her dress. Clara
Saunders impressionist pastel por-
trait of a man is a characterful
capture. Ruth Osgood's sepia
wash drawing of a child and its
nurse has the delicacy of a dry
point.
Flower and still life are as few
as portraits and figures. Ruth
Safford's gouache, Bean Pot
filled with nasturtiums is out
standing. Minnie Briggs Raul S
shows a color etching Of anemones
bright and fresh.
Distinguished out-of- town mem
bers represented include John
Taylor Arms (Washington-born
but long resident of Connecticut
with superb etching Of a Gothic
cathedral; Chauncey F. Ryder
New England and New York;
whose dollhouse Road" a dry
point, is typical Of his poetic. airy
landscapes, whether in paint OF
a graphic medium; and Reynold
Weidenaar of Grand Rapids
Michigan, whose "Old Banyan
Tree" is velvety dark mezZotint
Is an admirable performance in a
little used medium. Sallie Hum
phreys of Delaware. Ohio, has
sent pleasing snowy landscape in
watercolor.
Frank Kerr's watercolor in
brown and gray, of dead trees in a
lake, is extremely simple and ef-
fective. Norma Bose's "Occoquan
Run is the best work I have seen
by her in many months. Iona
Miller Keplinger's Widows Barn"
and Janice Hollands Summer
Sky" are sound traditional land
scapes.
Young Uruguayan
A very personal modern idiom
is seen in the work of Antonio
Frasconi, on view at the Pan
American Union until March is.
This young artist was represented
in the exhibition of contemporary
prints from the Brooklyn Mu-
seums annual circulated by the
American Federation of Arts and
shown at the Corcoran Gallery
last October.
. Nineteen of the twenty-odd
works in the show are woodcuts
in color and black and white
This is the medium in which the
artist apparently has done the
most and strongest work. He
utilizes black for large areas even
in his color woodcuts. the colors
chosen being generally dark and
often harsh. Angles dominate his
| ,x,l,;nL, ,,r