International studio (59.1916)

Arthur Wardles Pastel Paintings

colour—the artist has not, while at work, to make
allowances for subsequent changes in the general
effect of his picture.
What all this means to the animal painter, who
has to work always at the fullest possible speed,
can be easily understood. His sitters will not
obligingly pose for him and keep, like the trained
model, for hours in the same position. They are
restless subjects and seem to take a sort of malig-
nant pleasure in adding to his difficulties by sudden
changes of attitude and by unexpected movements
intended apparently only to disconcert him. They
have a way too of resenting the gaze of the artist
who is studying them and they show their resent-
ment often by a sort of sulky protest which makes
them peculiarly unaccommodating.
So the painter, faced with such difficulties, must
be prepared to do what he can in the briefest
possible time, to set down in a few minutes perhaps
a complicated piece of draughtsmanship and to
express with a few touches an elaborate arrange-
ment of colour and light and shade. He has no
time to deliberate or to experiment ; if he cannot
realise at once what he sees his chance is gone —
and there is little hope that he will ever have it
again. The shortening and simplifying of the

process by which his results are obtained is
obviously a matter of much moment to him, and it
is evident that the medium which will bring these
results within his reach with the smallest amount
of mental and physical wear and tear is the one
which is best adapted to meet the demands made
upon him by his art.
Certainly, Mr. Wardle has been able to do with
pastel much that would have hardly been attainable
by any other means. His pastel pictures and
studies of animal subjects can assuredly be said to
owe not a little of their interest to the material in
which they are executed—and this without implying
any disparagement of his powers either as an
observer or an executant. It is obvious that an
artist who chooses as his particular subject for
study something which requires an unusual promp-
ness of perception and exceptional rapidity of
interpretation must be to some extent dependent
for his success upon the painting process he
employs. If he is hindered by the implements of
his craft, some diminution in the capacity of his
work to convince is inevitable ; if the mechanism he
has to control is helpful and responsive the strength
of his personality has a far better chance of assert-
ing itself and of being recognised by other people.


“A MALAYAN TIGER.”

BY ARTHUR WARDLE