Exhibition Of Paintings Create Interest

Chronicle (Levin), 2 November 1949, Page 4

Exhibition Of Paintings Create Interest

I The display of paintings by John and Nancy Adkin Ritchie

shown under .the auspices of the Levin Arts Society created great interest and was well attended by the . general public. The excellent draughtsmanship, design and brilliant colour of the thirty pictures hung was most impressive. It would be difficu.t to single out any one pieture for special eomment because of the even standard of painting. - Nancy Ritchie, however, presented three ! that were most appealing. They | wer^ her arrangement of birds and pears, a study im blue and autumn colouring of the Ruamahunga River, and the delightful setting of nuns in a classroom. John Ritchie 'definitely has an artist's eye for producing the unusual from the commonplace, as seen to perfection in his two wharf studies, where buoys and I oil barrels are featured in rythmic I motion. Others that aroused Imuch interest by their viriie coloming and design were "Lake .Summer," "Sinister Evening," a still life painting of marigolds and a remarkable study of decaying form. Portraits of a Samoan

school girl, Maori boy and a charming study of a small boy showed to advantage the remarkable character in the work of these two artists. Both artists are more interested

in the abstract rather than. representative painting. John Ritchie's lecture on modern art was an exposition of the viewpoint of the two painters.