Studio: international art (63.1914/15)

Studio- Talk

with one subject, the specialist of one idea. The the artist. Like Whistler, time and cost do not
young individualist may lack a following, his pictures count with him ; he is the very soul of artistic
may overcrowd his studio, may be rejected by honour, and were he carving the smallest detail on
Committees of Selection, or badly hung at exhibi- a vane for a lofty steeple, it would be as scrupu-
tions, but with supreme unconcern he pursues his lously executed as an ornament to be placed on the
art. The history of art teems with examples of men eye level, for the spirit of the old Greek artists
who painted ahead of their time, finding con- dwells again in Petrie. He may not yet have dis-
solation for contemporary neglect in unfaltering covered his right medium, though he works with
belief in themselves. Public opinion may be no great facility in many. The movement for a
more discriminating to-day than in the time of National Theatre or Opera House may be rational
Rembrandt and Meryon, nor was earnest pursuit of and urgent; but should there not be more regard
art limited to the great Dutch and French periods, paid to struggling genius in art ? It is not enough
- to purchase the works of successful artists for

The Glasgow School of Art is the Alma Mater ot permanent public collections, a process in which
most of the younger Glasgow men. It would be the trick of manoeuvring sometimes outbids the
difficult in a sentence exactly to define the system claims and considerations of art.
of training pursued at this renowned art institution, -

or to explain the power of attraction it exercises Amongst portrait painters, William Findlay is
over the alumni long after the period of training rapidly earning a deservedly high position. To
is over, but it is abundantly evident that the culture in draughtsmanship, acquired at the
curriculum or atmosphere conduces to a measure Glasgow School of Art, he adds the Romanticism
of individuality in the students in-
stead of suppressing it, as so many
academic institutions appear to do.
The Director of the School, a man
of boundless energy and purpose,
has broadened the basis to such an
extent that nearly every teacher ot

art, in the wide district to which it .^(BBfc^

forms a centre, comes now directly mH^RBB' i

within the range of its influence. * Wf

An artist who paints oil, tern- m <^^>kfl|gj|j|^^^^^BB

pera, pastel, and water-colour;
models in clay and wood ; chisels in
stone and marble; fashions in
silver; works in landscape, por-
traiture, and in the realm of imagina- / *j| % .
tive study; plans, builds and ^■■Bur .Jp
decorates house and studio, digs, ^ W
trenches and cultivates the garden, «|
competes for and executes decorative ' / 11 . --Sk. 1
schemes of importance, the while WS '

conducting a class on colour at the I { Eft U jfeBtJ*k

School of Art, may surely be claimed ■ 'X t^^fii

as a busy, many-sided artist, which

W. M. Petrie assuredly is. He has

the double disadvantage in the

struggle for success, of a nature

unduly shy and retiring, and a mind

severely critical of his efforts ; thus

no work is permitted to leave his

studio that falls in any degree

short of the high standard set by portrait hy william findlay

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