| BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS |
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Watercolours included in the British Columbia artists'
exhibition at Vancouver Art Gallery are in the minority, but
they do not suffer in quality on that account. One of Vancouver's earliest painters in watercolor was Tom Fripp. His paintings have a beauty and charm all their own, and people who are familiar with his style can never mistake his rendering of towering mountain peaks. He was never a painter of sunshine, but excelled in depicting cloud, and fog and misty moods in the mountains of which all British Columbians have intimate knowledge. "Glacier on D'Arcy Range" is a good example of his work. R.G. Bunyard's "Yale, B.C.," is an exceptionally fine painting of the Interior. Well defined and yet delicate in structure, the old houses against the sombre mountains give the true character of the locality with marked success. Emily Carr's "Kitwanga" shows her natural sense of form and drama in her earlier work. There is fresh color and careful detail in "Early Morning, Fulford Harbor" by S.P. Judge. John Kyle's "Totem Poles, Alert Bay" shows good drawing, and Miriam Peck's "Market Square, Old Quebec" is broadly painted in clear bright color. "Circus Detal" (sic) by Ross Lort is a delightful small painting, in simple, direct coloring, original in both subject and design, and with more than a touch of that rare ingredient, humor. "The Crow's Nest" by Paul Rand is one of his best watercolors, showing the monumental character of the mountains in an unusually virile composition. There is clear, fresh color in John Scott's "Bleached Rocks", and Maud Sherman has a delicately-drawn painting of "Trees on Savary Island". G.L. Thornton Sharp is represented by two watercolors in characteristic style. Other painters in this medium include Harry Hood with "Tool House, Port Moody"; Grace Judge with "September"; Dorothy Stevens Cope with "House on Broadway"; Joan Wright Boyd with "Spring" and Melita Aitken with "Red Poppies." |