International studio (24.1904/1905(1905))

T. L. Shoo smith's hVater- colours

strikingly effective room. In the drawing-room
on page 219, a novel treatment is adopted; all
the furniture being of maple stained a rich violet;
the carpet of apple-green colour; the strapping,
and graceful dividing screen is in ivory-coloured
enamel, and the wall panels are lined with an
unpatterned willow-green silk.
The complete effect here is pleasingly graceful,
considering the daring nature of the conception.
Stained glass for domestic purposes has long
attracted this artist; many of the effects he has pro-
duced in this ancient medium of decoration, both
in beauty of line and arrangement of colour, being
quite unique.
In this work he takes the most infinite pains,
making drawing after drawing, altering a line here,
and a colour there, until he gets the exact idea he
wishes to express, before entrusting the work to the-
craftsmen. He visits the workshop again and again
while it is in progress, the guiding idea of the artist
being that no detail, however secondary it may
appear, is unimportant.
That E. A. Taylor does not limit his attention
to decoration and design,
the Royal Scottish
Academy and other ex-
hibitions from time to
time demonstrate.
In some of his water-
colourdrawingsthere is con-
siderable originality. He
prefers nature in her subtler
moods, seeing rich tones
of colour divided by
graceful lines, as the sandy
shore, the blue sea, and
the grey sky. Here is
a whole scheme of colour
which can be enlivened
by delicate touches of
brightness introduced in
the right places. Like-
wise in landscape, the
beauty of line and harmony
of tone appeal most
strongly to him; and his
endeavour is not so much
to discard the methods
of other artists because
he disapproves of them,
but rather because they
do not enable him to
interpret nature as he
sees it.
226

The work of the designer and decorative artist
of to-day is no sinecure, particularly if he proceeds
on what is popularly known as “ modern lines.”
He begins by encountering a certain amount of
prejudice, he speaks in a comparatively unfamiliar
tongue, he has to arrange every detail, to see the
work carried through; and if the completed result
falls short of what at times is unintelligently ex-
pected, the undivided responsibility and blame is
laid at the door of the artist.
Notwithstanding this, the progress of modern
decorative art in Glasgow is remarkable, and that
progress has been materially effected by E. A.
Taylor. J. T.
HE WATER COLOURS OF T. L.
SHOOSMITH. BY T. MARTIN
WOOD.
It is possible for a water-colour painter’s work
to be quite spontaneous, though the painter may
have taken a long time in arriving at his results.
Every touch may have been spontaneous in the