Studio: international art (89.1925)

STORRINGTON—ASHTEAD—SOUTHPORT

STORRINGTON (Sussex). — The
ship illustrated is the work of the
well-known artist, Paul Hardy. 0 0
Though professionally mainly a painter
and black-and-white man, Mr. Hardy has
all his life found his chief recreation in
working in metals. This beautiful little
model was exhibited in the Wembley
Exhibition. It is 3ft. in length and made
entirely by hand of Mond nickel, a metal
which permits of extraordinary mal-
leability. The base on which the ship
rides was first modelled in wax, from
which it was then cast in nickel, a a
Mr. Hardy was born at Clifton, near
Bristol, and is the son of the artist, David
Hardy. His work in metal has been mainly
in steel, but this nickel ship is probably
the most ambitious and successful of his
efforts. The vessel is like a great ship of
silver with the heraldic designs in glowing
colours set on by Mr. Harold Stabler. 0
Paul Hardy lives in the old-world
village of Storrington, in Sussex, a 0

ASHTEAD (Surrey).—We illustrate a
portrait medal of Miss Sybil Thorn-
dike as " Saint Joan," made by Madge
Kitchener, of the Little Gallery, Ashtead,
Surrey. Actual size, 3\% in. Miss Thorn-
dike has recently accepted a bronze cast
of the medal. 0000

PORTRAIT MEDAL <3F MISS
SYBIL THORNDIKE AS " SAINT
JOAN." BY MADGE KITCHENER

"MARY SOPHIA WAL-
BROKE." MINIATURE
BY VIOLET BRUNTON

SOUTHPORT.—It is a sign of barbaric
thinking to regard the large as neces-
sarily strong and the small as necessarily
weak. Yet the numbers of feeble minia-
tures met with in most exhibitions testify
to the fact that weakness is tolerated in
this branch of art which would not be
accepted in other branches. The natural
result has been a decline in quality in
miniature painting taken as a whole. 0
In a miniature portrait so much human
character and history must be compressed
into so small a compass that, unless a
concentration of vitality and vision of no
mean order be present, miserable failure
is inevitable. The general attitude to-
wards this art allows the dabbler and the
should-be amateur to dither on un-
checked, when they should be admonished
to get them to Hans Holbein and to blush
before him. Miss Violet Brunton, R.M.S.,
late of Southport and now of London,
seems not only to maintain the strength
which is hers in larger work, but to grow
in strength, when her medium is the
concentrative miniature. She is therefore
able to produce a sense of force, like the
stinging flash of a jewel, which is the

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