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ART NOTES.
MR. PENLEIGH BOYD.
The exhibition of new work by Mr. Pen-
leigh Boyd that was opened at the Decora-
tion Galleries on Tuesday definitely marks
the fulfilment of Mr. Boyd's artistic pro-
mise and places him securely in the front
rank of Australian painters. It is the work
of a painter who has fought his way
through the tangle of doubts, temptations
and difficulties that lies in the path of
every artist who is possessed of vision and
an honest purpose. He has emerged a
master of the medium of his art. About
this work there is no herniation, no feeling
of experimentation in which a beautiful
effect may be a happy fluke, no ambigious
phrases or half-expressed ideas. Each pic-
ture is a definite, clear expression of what
the artist has to say, and is painted with
a greater virility than Mr. Boyd has pre-
viously been able to put into his work. In
every sense they mark a solid advance
along the road to very great achievement.
Mr. Boyd has become more aware of Na-
ture as a mighty force. Although he still
loves it best when it is "dreaming on its
strong right arm," it is the sheer physical
strength of nature that he has begun to
express in paint. With this forward de-
velopment of mind there has come a for-
ward development of technique, of color
sense and of tonal accuracy. These quali-
ties are, of course, not found to the same
extent in every one of the 21 pictures in
this exhibition, but in such examples as
Golden Evening, Opalescent Morning, Lon-
don Bridge and The White Road they are
found in generous measure.
The collection consists of fifteen oil paint-
ings and six water colors, all painted in
or around Portsea. The most ambitious
canvas in the exhibition is Golden Evening,
in which the artist has achieved that mel-
low richness of atmosphere which lingers
for a few brief moments after the setting
of the sun. The light behind the headline
and the opalescence of the sea are joyously
painted. The white roofs of houses on the
wooded hill above the beach save the pic-
ture from the one possible reproach of
being painted too low in tone. But al-
though in many ways the most powerful
of his paintings, Golden Evening is sur-
passed in artistic quality and power of sug-
gestion by Opalescent Morning. London
Bridge, The White Road, Cloud Shadows
and The Wave are the best of the smaller
pictures. The water-color paintings are re-
markable for showing that Mr. Boyd defies
the traditional limitations of this medium.
He uses all the beauty there is in the sur-
face of water color, and he adds to it the
depth that is supposed to be possible only
in oils. His Crepuscule, a simple study of
moonlight on the sea, is as much a new
revelation of the possibilities of an old
medium as are Norman Lindsay's pen
drawings. Evening Calm has the same
quality of richness, and it may be seen by
those who look even in the apparent slight-
ness of Tranquil Morning.
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