Studio: international art (78.1919)

J. HAMILTON MACKENZIE, PAINTER AND ETCHER

“HEAD OF GLEN SANNOX, ARRAN”
CHARCOAL DRAWING BY J. HAMIL-
TON MACKENZIE, R.S.W., A.R.E.

than that, in the chapel under the north-west
bell-tower, Mr, Cole's share as sculptor is to
be a recumbent figure of the great soldier
with three appropriate decorative groups.
Meanwhile, hear himself on his aims. “ In
my sculptures in relation to architecture I
aim to make the figures an inherent part of
the whole, like a flower on its plant or tree,
to create, in fact, a complete decoration,
much as Alfred Stevens did ; though the
scant time allowed for the delivery of
groups under modern building conditions
makes such an ideal very difficult to apply.
In all my sculpture I work to express a new
thought through organic lines and forms.
I look to nature for patterns, and try to
develop these in my designs. I pay great
attention to design, and try to make the
figure a reality in itself, irrespective of
literal realism. I strive always to make my
figures plastic, the modellings to express
life and force. I like very careful high
finish, all the silhouettes to read complete."

148

J. HAMILTON MACKENZIE,
PAINTER AND ETCHER. BY
E. A. TAYLOR. 0 a a

SO accustomed have we become to
specialization in art, that any depar-
ture made by an artist from the type of
production by which he has become
known, no matter how excellent the results
may be, generally terminates in its rejec-
tion, so that from the point of view of
remuneration, at all events, he is destined
to remain a specialist. Whether early art-
school education has anything to do with
the drift towards a one-sided career or not
may be open to question, but the stereo-
typed moulds through which the students
of many art schools have to pass, show that
the system of training is not blameless. In
“ The Note-Books of Samuel Butler " that
shrewd critic is recorded as saying, apropos
of his art-school essays in painting : "I
listened to the nonsense about how I ought