BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Vancouver Daily Province November 13, 1946

In The Realm of Art

Weston Display Major Event
In Province's Art History

By Palette

     A large one-man exhibition of paintings and drawings by William P. Weston, A.R.C.A., opened Tuesday at the Gallery, marks another major event in B.C. art history. Only two other artists, Lawren Harris and Emily Carr, have been honored by exclusive displays of their work in the Gallery's spacious north room and adjacent rooms.
     On entering the exhibition hall the visitor will at once be aware how justified is the tribute paid to Mr. Weston. For many years art lovers in Vancouver and other cities have admired examples of his pictures in annual exhibitions.
     In this assemblage of numerous works, including 25 large canvasses painted between 1913-46, it is now possible to grasp the true significance of an artist long ago recognized as one of the leading painters of the Dominion.
     This collection constitutes a remarkable revelation of the beauty and character of the majestic windswept mountains, waterways and twisted trees of British Columbia.
     In restrained colur but with forceful tones, power of line and organized forms the veteran artist has given interpretation in excellent design to certain prevailing asperities in our western landscapes.

RESEMBLES DALI

     Looking south across the border for his subject the painter in "Mount Olympus" conveys a sense of weight, dignity and rhythm in a truly superb rendering of snow peaks surmounting the massive bulk of mountains cut by drifting columns of mist.
     In "Beached", another of his more important canvases, one beholds a huge gnarled tree-trunk washed up on the shore and assuming, in an almost Dali surrealist manner, strange tormented forms as if the tree were some monster in its death struggle.
     These and other canvasses in the display suggest in an unique way the spirit of nature's forces, of wind and glacial action, which have helped to model wild and tumuluous forms.
     While not an explorer in the modern intense research for color, Mr. Weston achieves substantial dealization or complete statement within his own realm of personal vision backed by skilled craftsmanship.
     In observing the exhibits in the present display it is easy to understand how his achievements have received recognition among numerous notable collections, throughout the Dominion and across the border.
     William P. Weston was the first B.C. artist to be made an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. For many years he was President of the B.C. Society of Fine Arts.
     As painter, teacher, lecturer and member of the Gallery Council his contribution to art in the west has been of far-reaching value. His retirement this year after thirty years as art instructor at the Normal School leaves him more liesure (sic) to devote to the art of painting.
     On November 17 the Sunday meetings organized by the U.B.C. Art and Cultural centre, open to the public, will be resumed at the "Gables", newly rebuilt restaurant and tea rooms on University Boulevard.
     On the walls will be exhibited paintings and photographs by local artists. The display will include works by Cliff Robinson, Dorothy H. Willis, and A. George Bulhak, chairman of executive committee.
     Among main objects of these meetings will be the purpose of providing a congenial meeting place for all people interested in art and culture - artists, students, professors and the general public.

AT THE GALLERY

     Current small displays at the Gallery include pictures by Helen Piper-Brown and a collection dealing with the work of pioneer English photographer H. Fox Talbot, 1800-1877. It is interesting to note that a hundred years ago Fox Talbot published the first book illustrated by photographs, "The Pencil of Nature".



HOME