FOR PAINTERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 478, 20 August 1948, Page 17

FOR PAINTERS

NOTES ON THE TECHNIQUE OF PAINTING. By Hilaire Hiler. . Faber and Faber. N his preface to this book Sir William Rothenstein says: "Fourteen years’ experience among students has shown me how unwilling they are to work methodically. Filthy and _ illarranged palettes, misshapen and unwashed brushes are the rule. .,, It would be no ill thing if a period overmuch given to aesthetic experiment were followed by one devoted in part at least to rigid technical practice. . ." Whether or not one shares Sir William’s views about "overmuch aesthetic experiment," one can heartily agree with him that here is the book for the painter who wishes to study his means and to make the very most of them. This is no mere shopkeeper’s manual of stock-in-trade. It is written by a practising artist who for many years has (continued on next page)

| BOOK REVIEWS (Cont’d)

(continued from previous page) made a close study of pigments, supports, brushes and all the other means used by the painter. If, as one writer on aesthetics (J: M. Thorburn) has put it, "the problem of medium is the key to the problem of art," then a reasonably full knowledge of how the means behave, and of how they may be manipulated, is obviously necessary if the artist is to progress beyond the elementary stages. To attempt to give any proper idea of the range of information contained in this book is impossible in a short review. . Oil and watercolour pdinting,

tempera, murals, frescoes, are dealt with exhaustively. Various methods of -preparing paper, board and_ canvas are. described in close detail, as are qualities of pigments and the ways of applying them.

The classification of colours, and the theory of colour according to Ostwald and others, are dealt with lucidly. The chemistry of pigments is treated from a layman’s point of view. Among a hundred other matters of practical interest is a chapter on "Modern Palettes," in which those used by Orpen, Derain, Bracque, Utrillo, Paul Nash, and other contemporary artists are listed. It is safe to say that no school of art should be without this book; but beyond that, it must be warmly recommended to all those (whether they are students or mature artists) who practise painting, or who are interested ih any way in the making of pictures. The technical side of painting is very complex indeed, and it has a fascination of its own that is likely to be awakened, perhaps, only by such a book as this, in which the historical, the practical and the aesthetic aspects of the subject illuminate one another. Needless to say, Faber’s have made a first-rate job of the typography

and production,

A.R.D.

F.