Kenneth Stubbs
(American artist, 1907-1967)

Landscape Annual

The best exhibition I have seen, by the Landscape Club of Washington, is on view at the Arts Club through next Friday. Fifty oils and water colors represent more than 20 members, some of whom have two or three works each. Although the exhibition is predominantly naturalistic, as heretofore, there is more variety in handling, and more modern paintings.

Awards were based on a vote of the members present at the opening tea. The silver medal went to Vaughn L. Jackson, president of the Landscape Club, for his large water color, "Low Tide," nostalgic naturalism, competently handled. Two bronze medals were given, respectively, to M. D. Mangus' oil, "Freighting on the Kayakuk," a colorful capture, and to Garver Miller's "Shenandoah Street," houses naturalistically varied in shape, unified by the color scheme. Robert Willis' "Temple Forms" fetched honorable mention; its architectural details are discerned in an abstract arrangement of nicely integrated colors and white.

In earlier years, the Landscape Club members got together and roamed the Maryland and Virginia countryside, or other nearby areas on week ends, for their painting themes. They may still be doing this; but the evidence of the annual indicates that each member went his own way, and a considerable distance from Washington. There are glimpses of Hong Kong by Eliot O'Hara, Hawaii by Sidney Shapiro, old churches in Italy by Gustav Trois, Avignon rooftops by Kenneth Stubbs, Alaska by William F. Walter, the Far West by Lee Atkyns and C. J. Polesz and other distant places.

Some of the members have drawn their inspiration from the Washington area. Particularly appealing are Walter Bachrach's "Georgetown" on a wet day, Garnet Jex's "Thawing Snow" in Loudon County and Minor Jameson's poetic "Up the Lane." New members James Cupoli and John Bryans are represented with characteristic landscapes.

Charles Dunn shows two abstractions, one an arrangement of swirling colored thread lines on a black ground.

Florence Berryman, Washington Star, April 10, 1955, page E-11