Studio: international art (90.1925)

THE WORK OF MR. TERRICK
WILLIAMS, A.R.A. BY A. L. BALDRY.

THERE are two capacities which count
for much in the equipment of the
painter of open-air subjects, the ability to
observe sensitively and with subtlety of
vision and the power to interpret the facts
of nature with a sufficient degree of
personal conviction. Sensitiveness of ob-
servation enables the artist to acquire that
intimate knowledge of realities which is
the foundation upon which his art must
be built up, and from subtlety of vision
comes the discrimination that helps him
to view those realities in their right re-
lation one to the other. But it is the manner
in which he applies the knowledge he
collects that determines his quality as an
artist; if he is content merely to record
literally what he has seen his work will
quite possibly be impressive in its faithful
statement of plain facts, but it will almost
certainly be dull and uninspired ; if, on
the other hand, he has learned how to
translate these facts into pictorial terms,
he will give to his work the emotional
vitality which is convincing because it is
an expression of his own personality. a
Without the foundation of exact know-
ledge, however, the full expression of his
individuality will be impossible. Unless
he can select correctly from the material
at his disposal and eliminate what is un-
suitable or unnecessary, he cannot convey
to others a right impression of the emotion
which he has himself felt and which has
been the motive for his effort. He cannot
translate what he has not himself under-
stood, and he cannot be original if he has
not found out what are the obvious things
he has to avoid—the more complete his
equipment the better fitted is he to explore
new fields of practice. 000
All this is preliminary to a consideration
of the art of Mr. Terrick Williams ; it is
appropriate because he is an artist who
provides in his work a particularly good
illustration of the value of the com-
bination of intimate and searching study
with definite independence of outlook and
statement. As a painter he occupies
to-day a position apart from most of his
contemporaries, one that he has made for
himself by consistent pursuit of well-
110

conceived ideals and by an equally con-
sistent soundness of achievement. Not
many men have built up a reputation so
surely or have progressed so steadily
towards the full maturity of their powers ;
he has gone forward step by step along
his chosen path, never deviating into
aimless experiment or losing sight of his
artistic purpose and the appreciation he
enjoys is evidence of his success. 0 0

Yet he is not one of those painters who
owes his popularity to persistent repetition
of the same type of subject. Some men,
having hit upon a certain kind of picture
which pleases a large section of the public,
are content to go on producing it year
after year without altering to any great
extent either its character or its manner
of treatment; commercially, no doubt,
they have their reward, but it is gained at
the expense of their artistic conscience.
Mr. Terrick Williams has never been
guilty of any such betrayal of responsibility,
and he has never obscured his outlook by
refusing to study fresh motives and new
methods of expression. He has, indeed,
ranged widely in search of material for his
pictures, but his excursions have always
led him in directions where he could find
something that he could turn to good
account—something worth investigation
and fit for pictorial transcription. 0

In fact, all the subject matter with which
he deals is studied and analysed with equal
care so that he shall be able to realise
its essential character and make clear the
nature of the impression it has made upon
him : he does not trust to any convention

"THE GOLDEN PORCH, QUIMPERLE "
BY TERRICK WILLIAMS, A.R.A.