Studio: international art (55.1912)

Tom Mostyn

revelation of his readiness to vary his manner of
expression and his method of execution to suit the
demand made upon him by the character of the
subject with which he happens to be engaged.
He is too true a lover of abstract imagination to
fall into the vice of materialism, too sensitive and
ingenious a thinker to accept conclusions forced
upon him by other people, and too sincere and
accomplished a craftsman to tie himself to some
fixed technical prescription ; what he wants to do
he does in the way he thinks best, and it is his
own conviction that guides him in his struggle for
expression.

This conviction, as it happens, leads him into a
walk of art which is trodden by hardly any of our
modern artists—into full-blooded romanticism of
the type that makes the most exacting demand
upon the mental faculties of the worker and that
requires of him the closest concentration. It is

not the romantic suggestion that satisfies Mr.
Mostyn, the delicate infusion of a touch of romantic
sentiment into pictures which are in all main
essentials faithful records of nature; he is not
content merely to soften down facts and realities
by veiling them in an atmosphere of subtle illusion.
What he seeks is for a world of his own creation
in which romance is the dominant, all-pervading
note, and in which reality counts as of small im-
portance in the artistic scheme. Yet he does not
ignore the spirit of nature ; he has studied her too
closely and he understands her too well to disregard
any of the lessons she has to teach, but the know-
ledge he has derived from her is used in building
up a quite imaginary surrounding into which none
of the commonplaces of everyday existence are
allowed to enter. Within the limits of this sur-
rounding he finds ample scope for the expression
of his personal feeling as an artist, for the develop-

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