Studio: international art (61.1914)

Fred St rat ton

of the realist. Except for three years when he was
in London studying figure drawing, Mr. Stratton
has lived all his life in the country. His home for
some years past has been in the picturesque old
Sussex village of Amberley, with its thatched
cottages, under the shelter of the spacious Downs,
and near by are the wooded banks of the Arun and
the noble park of Parham, all rich with inspirations
for this painter-poet of the woodlands. Never,
indeed, could he live far from the companionship
of trees, which he knows and understands in all
their stages of growth and all their moods as they
vary with the changes of the day and the season.
There is no need for him to tell you, as you look
at his pictures, that he loves strong, healthy,
vigorous trees, limpid and sparkling water, sweet-
smelling earth, and lush grass, with the shine and
gleam of the sun over all, and the atmosphere
vibrating serenely; that he loves to paint rich
pure colour; and always to dream of youth,
lovely and healthy and natural. You may see all
this expressed with beautiful and vital artistry in
Forest Ecstasy, just mentioned, in The Diver, The

Woodland Stream, Summer, and The Picnic, a little
gem, in which you will find passages of paint of
a quality and a purity of colour rare to equal in
the painting of to-day. But these sunshine pictures
express only the glad, joyous phases of this painter's
temperament; there are many beautiful night
pictures which reflect the deeper poetic emotions
aroused in him when he finds himself, in the still-
ness and mystery of the twilight or the night, alone
in the meadows or on the Downs, or in the quiet
lampless village. With what a magic touch he can
paint moonlight, with what a romantic sense of its
mysteries he can suffuse the atmosphere, may be
seen in the lovely Moonrise, which I should rather
name with Shelley's line, " Where music and moon-
light and feeling are one." This indeed is how I
interpret the original water-colour sketch, which
hangs on my wall before me as I write, a constant
joy. Here, in the first inspiration, is all the essen-
tial poetry of the picture; it sings in its frame.
Of Mr. Stratton's waler-colour drawings I must
write another time; they are a vital and most
important expression of his artistic self.

'the picnic" (The property of Sannyer Atkin, Esq.) oil painting by fred stratton

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