Studio: international art (89.1925)

REDMIRE

" MURPHY'S MOTORS AT RICHMOND "
CHALK DRAWING BY FRED LAWSON

REDMIRE (Yorkshire)—Amid the
conflict of opinion and effort one is
refreshed to find a young painter in water-
colour whose work is free from the intru-
sion of sinister and eccentric influences,
and to see expressed in his work a power
to depict the beauties and diversities of
nature which is built upon a foundation
of sincere study and steady perseverance.

Such an artist is Fred Lawson, who
from early youth has followed his artistic
impulses with a seriousness of purpose
strengthened by a sincere love of the land-
scape and the simple rural life of his native
county of Yorkshire. a a a
A stunted pine tree on a wind-swept,
heather-clad knoll, or a wide sweep of
moorland, will yield a simple subject for
his brush, and its portrayal in swift, broad
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masses of harmonious colour ranks it in
importance with his more ambitious
themes. There is a wonderful ease and
fidelity to his subject in his water-colour
work. His chalk and pencil drawings
are marked by decisiveness and lack of
hesitancy in line. The skilful grouping
of figures, each betraying its individual
character and movement as they frequent
some old Yorkshire market place, is
expressed with a faultless sense of form.
His country village fair ground, with its
caravans, its atmosphere and Bohemian
life added to the kaleidoscopic riot of colour,
so picturesquely rendered in water-colour,
place his art on a high level. It is like
Lawson himself and no other, and by this
personal association its standard of excel-
lence is expressed. William E. Preston.