DOI Heft:
No. 373 (April 1924)
DOI Artikel:[Notes: two hundred and twenty-one illustrations]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0237
DUMFRIES
DUMFRIES.—To history and romance
artists owe perhaps more than they
give full creditable thought for the attrac-
tions of many of their subject motives.
A name, too, may conjure up for them ideas
of inspiration out of which will grow some
pictorial beauty or alluring design. “ Devor-
gilla,” the name given to the old bridge
across the Nith at Dumfries, may serve as
one example to the artist who cares to seek
the romance associated with it. The
accompanying illustration of the vividly
spontaneous water-colour, by Mrs. Chris.
J. Ferguson, shows it in its artistic attrac-
tiveness as it appears to-day, and it is the
quality of lyrical spontaneity inherent in
the medium of water-colour, which she
maintains throughout all her work and
which becomes in it one of its most en-
ticing characteristics. There is no feeling
in any of her water-colour drawings of the
artist having fumbled for effect, but always
one of directness and open-air liveliness
and of the work having been left when the
effect had passed, whether completed or
not. There is nothing exotic about her art,
“ THE BRIDGE OF DEVORGILLA
DUMFRIES.” WATER-COLOUR
BY CHRIS. J. FERGUSON
"A CORNER OF PITTEN-
WEEM.” WATER-COLOUR
BY CHRIS. J. FERGUSON
nor is she led by the thought of that of
others into devious paths to escape in any
way from herself, her vision and taste
being entirely her own, which is here
further exemplified in clear and clean
washes of colour in A Corner of Pitten-
weem. Born in Dumfries, it was there she
taught herself water-colour drawing and
she further developed her art desires in
the Crystal Palace School of Art and that
of Glasgow under Mr. Fra. H. Newbery,
ultimately being engaged as one of the
staff of teachers in that art institution and
later being employed as Principal Art
Mistress in another of Glasgow's educa-
tional colleges. Finally she settled down in
her early homeland of Dumfries, where she
and her husband are enthusiastic organisers
of anything pertaining to the arts; both
being instrumental, with others, in helping
to form the Dumfries and Galloway Fine
Arts Society, whose first exhibition was
held in 1922, and contained examples of
work by almost all the eminent Scottish
artists. E. A. T.
219
DUMFRIES.—To history and romance
artists owe perhaps more than they
give full creditable thought for the attrac-
tions of many of their subject motives.
A name, too, may conjure up for them ideas
of inspiration out of which will grow some
pictorial beauty or alluring design. “ Devor-
gilla,” the name given to the old bridge
across the Nith at Dumfries, may serve as
one example to the artist who cares to seek
the romance associated with it. The
accompanying illustration of the vividly
spontaneous water-colour, by Mrs. Chris.
J. Ferguson, shows it in its artistic attrac-
tiveness as it appears to-day, and it is the
quality of lyrical spontaneity inherent in
the medium of water-colour, which she
maintains throughout all her work and
which becomes in it one of its most en-
ticing characteristics. There is no feeling
in any of her water-colour drawings of the
artist having fumbled for effect, but always
one of directness and open-air liveliness
and of the work having been left when the
effect had passed, whether completed or
not. There is nothing exotic about her art,
“ THE BRIDGE OF DEVORGILLA
DUMFRIES.” WATER-COLOUR
BY CHRIS. J. FERGUSON
"A CORNER OF PITTEN-
WEEM.” WATER-COLOUR
BY CHRIS. J. FERGUSON
nor is she led by the thought of that of
others into devious paths to escape in any
way from herself, her vision and taste
being entirely her own, which is here
further exemplified in clear and clean
washes of colour in A Corner of Pitten-
weem. Born in Dumfries, it was there she
taught herself water-colour drawing and
she further developed her art desires in
the Crystal Palace School of Art and that
of Glasgow under Mr. Fra. H. Newbery,
ultimately being engaged as one of the
staff of teachers in that art institution and
later being employed as Principal Art
Mistress in another of Glasgow's educa-
tional colleges. Finally she settled down in
her early homeland of Dumfries, where she
and her husband are enthusiastic organisers
of anything pertaining to the arts; both
being instrumental, with others, in helping
to form the Dumfries and Galloway Fine
Arts Society, whose first exhibition was
held in 1922, and contained examples of
work by almost all the eminent Scottish
artists. E. A. T.
219