WOMAN IN ART
graceful as a lily. No medium, it seems, other than the pencil could produce that effect, even in the hand of so skilled an artist as Laura Knight.
Her touch is equally effective in water colors. "The Untrodden Sands" depicts this touch, and shows her consummate knowledge of sand, sea, and sky. The artist is as familiar with a rocky shore as the smooth beach, and "Daughters of the Sun," on the rocks or in the water, are in a wonderful sunlight.
One knows at a glance at "The Beach" that Holland and the North Sea have aided her knowledge, and no less have the barefooted, wind-blown, happy children, in the water and out of it. Reflected lights and nature's shadows among the little folk produce a delightful picture. The touches of high light on this canvas are of real value, and are not daubs of paint.
It is of interest to know that Laura and Harold Knight began their art study in their early days in the Nottingham Art School, and from Wilson Foster learned the foundation of an art education—"the capacity to imitate nature faithfully." Later they felt that too close imitation was not the end and aim of art. They were married in 1903, and soon after, broadened their art during a sojourn in Holland. That year Laura Knight sent her first picture to the Academy. It was called "Mother and Child," and was bought by Edward Stott, A. R. A., a distinction of which any artist might be proud. The influence of the Dutch art and artists enriched the art and knowledge of the two painters, as indeed it could not be otherwise. They gained in the long, low horizon, the broad sweep of wind and cloud, and the altogether different life and people; and the palette was set differently.
The next move was to Newlyn, with another group of painters on the Cornwall coast. There the environment produced another change. The rock-bound plowshare of Cornwall sets due South-West, saving England from the unruly tides of the Atlantic. Here if anywhere abounds pure air, billowing clouds and water, and a wealth of baptismal sunshine, in which Laura Knight and her numberless children worked and played, drinking health and joy, and for the artist, building up an enviable reputation.
A number of her paintings of children and glorious sunlight have been purchased by George Claussen, R. A., and sent to the Cape; "Flying a Kite" was one, and "Boys" is shedding its influence in Johannesburg. "The Green Feather" is in the National Gallery of Canada.
Laura Knight is gifted with interpretive skill in dealing with a great variety of subjects. She is not afraid of color, nor does she use it too lavishly
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