Studio: international art (87.1924)

LIVERPOOL—MANCHESTER—BIRMINGHAM

CASKET PRESENTED TO LORD
DERBY. DESIGNED BY F.
NEWLAND SMITH, A.R.C.A.

LIVERPOOL.—Every painter expresses
one or other of two things : his work
proclaims either his personality or the fact
that he does not possess any personality.

The man without personality may ex-
press the opinions of a school or a reflex
of the character of some other man, and
his proceedings often make up in violence
what they lack in individual strength. He
swallows his borrowed opinions whole,
being undisturbed by the workings of a
mind of his own. 0 0 0 0

In the work of Mr. James Grant, one
of the most able young painters produced
by Liverpool in recent years, there is
evidence that a clearly thinking mind guides
a technically strong hand to the expression
of its own feeling in methods not accepted
blindly, but with reason. Mr. Grant seems
to know where he is going and why. 0
Educated under that forceful master
Mr. Fred V. Burridge, at Liverpool,
Mr. Grant completed his studies in Paris,
at Julien’s and in the Louvre. He returned
to England to follow his first master to the
London Central Technical School just
before the outbreak of war; then Mr.
Grant's painting ceased for four years,
whilst he held a commission in the Loyal
North Lancashire Regiment, and began
again only when wounds prevented further
service. Mr. Grant has exhibited from time
to time at the Royal Academy, New English
Art Club, The International Society, Royal
Portrait Society, and elsewhere. J. W. S.
214

MANCHESTER.—From individuality
in painting to individuality in the
goldsmith’s craft is no far journey. The
success of Mr. F. Newland Smith in all
forms of such craft may be due to an atti-
tude best expressed in his own words :
“ With the work must be a soul worked
into and expressed in workmanship."
Mr. Newland Smith believes in the work-
shop and the materials rather than the
design studio. The student who designs
on paper loses the necessary contact be-
tween mind and material, the actual thing
made being simply a replica of the design,
and vigour and spontaneity suffer in con-
sequence. The great work of old was, as
Mr. Newland Smith maintains “ the
combination of vigorous minds hammered
into the precious metals, and the need of
the thing itself gave us the fine work.” 0
This artist’s work in Manchester is
naturally forceful and telling, and he is
working for a bigger and a better day in
that very important matter—English craft.

The casket reproduced was designed by
Mr. Newland Smith for presentation to
Lord Derby on the occasion of the opening
of the Barton Electric Power Station. In
all cases Mr. Newland Smith feels that the
work made should have, not only the per-
sonal convictions of the artist, but also some
reference to the future owner, about whom
he wishes to know something before be-
ginning the work. The charm of this idea
must be patent to all who understand the
art of personal expression. J. W. S.

Birmingham. — An exhibition, of
great interest to students of the deve-
lopment of the English School of water-
colour, was opened in February in the
galleries of the Royal Society of Artists.
This consisted of over 100 drawings, in
pencil and water-colour, by the brothers
John and Cornelius Varley. The collection,
which was lent by a descendant of the
artists and has never been exhibited before,
has attracted a considerable amount of
attention. Most of the drawings shown
were the work of Cornelius Varley, and
many were of great beauty, and came as a
surprise to a large number of visitors in
whose mind his name had suffered some
eclipse through the greater fame of his
elder brother. M. B. B.