Studio: international art (20.1900)

The National Competition, 1900

of decorative design should
come from the women
students is happily no
longer a matter for sur-
prise. Their wall-papers
this year are especially
good. The design for
paper and frieze by Martha
Bauerle (South Kensing-
ton) is vigorous and
pleasing, and the artist
has not allowed her strong
sense of decorative line to
outrun the restraints of
a flat surface in a paper
rich in colour. Another
good paper with a frieze is
by Alice Tyrer (Black-
-heath). The colouring, a
bold but careful com-
bination of blue, green
and purple, is, perhaps,
' . . -. ■ v better than the pattern,

and the frieze better than
the body of the design.
The same student shows
a ceiling-paper, which-
compares to no disad-
vantage with another by
Janet Robertson (South
Kensington). These
break new ground in a
rather neglected depart-
ment, and the greater
subtlety and airiness re-
quired by a ceiling as
against a wall-paper have
been well observed.
Another good paper is by
Eveline Pears (Birming-
ham), and one of the best
is by J. J. Whitcombe
(Bath) — a strong and
well-balanced design,
broadly conceived and
sober in colouring, in a
scheme (if we remember
rightly) of clay-browns

needlework, where the students seem to find a and Indian red. The designs of Arthur H. Baxter,
difficulty in realising the limits of silks and stitches, though showing a fine sense of form and space,
and in bringing the execution up to the level of the are a little reminiscent of well-known modern
original suggestion in softness and subtlety of designers. The attempts of several students to
colouring. introduce animal and human forms into wall-

That some of the best work in the larger kinds papers have not been successful. It is by no
254

DESIGNS FOR THE DECORATION OF A BEDROOM BV ARTHUR H. BAXTER