Vol. VI, No. 4 
SYRACUSE NEW YORK 
August, J 904 
T has been a difficult matter to 
make the ceramic fraternity under- 
stand our position in regard to 
decoration and we are sometimes 
dismayed at the misunderstanding 
on all sides. There is room in 
ceramic art for more than one style 
of work, as there is in so called 
"legitimate art" for both impres- 
sionist and academician. We be- 
lieve in the naturalistic painting of flowers and other subjects — 
but we wish to impress on china painters the fact that such 
work forms a picture and not a decoration and should be treated 
as such — painted on a panel, framed or unfranaed,and hung on 
a wall as is an oil painting or water color of the same subject. 
We believe that in order to paint such naturalistic studies 
so that they will rank with good paintings of the same subjects 
in other mediums, every china painter, whether she intends to 
"decorate" or not, should carefulh' follow such a course as 
has just been given in Keramic Studio on Principles of Design 
by Mr. Hugo Froehlich. It is just as necessary to observe these 
principles of placing, spacing, decorative lines, masses, color, 
etc., in painting as in decoration, if good work is to be the result. 
We believe in the study of historic ornament as a foundation 
on which we maj^ build a style of our own and the historic 
style of our own age and country. 
We admire the reproduction of good antique stj^les, 
Chinese, Persian, etc., as we admire any good reproduction of a 
work of art, but we admire more the genius that is able to 
abstract the art principles illustrated in these ancient master- 
pieces and apply them to motifs which are immediately about 
us and thereby produce an original work of art and one which 
will help in the forming of a national style of this country. 
But to each one die stjde that most appeals is legitimate. 
We prefer a good naturalistic painting or reproduction of an 
historic ornament to a poor attempt at original decoration, the 
best in its line is alwaj^s pleasing and poor work is not to be 
discouraged or encouraged, because we have all of us to pass 
through the stage of learning and those of us who are not so 
much encouraged by indiscriminating friends that they think 
they have no more to learn, may some day be able to do some- 
thing worth while. We can not all make works of art, but 
we may do pleasing things. Genius is born, not made, and 
rare at that. 
We publish the best of the designs from the " Jack-in-the- 
Pulpit'" class room but send the criticisms privately, as we 
find we cannot spare the space in the magazine. 
If «f 
LEAGUE NOTES 
THE Director of the Art Institute of Chicago has evinced 
an interest in the National League of Mineral Painters 
and expressed the desire that the Art Institute and the Ceramic 
Association become more in accord. We are therefore granted 
permission to hold our Advisorj^ Board meetings at that insti- 
tution. 
We appreciate the generositj^ of our Eastern members in 
voting us the management of League affairs just at this crisis. 
That this is a crisis, that we are evolving from mere overglaze 
decorators to ceramic artists, is proven by the sympathy we 
receive everj^ where from artists and artisans, and bj' their 
opinions as expressed at the recent exhibition in New York, 
given by one of our Board members. 
The results of serious study applied to porcelain are causing 
our artist friends to no longer shrug their shoulders, or stare 
into vacancy when we talk "shop." 
A notabty optimistic desire for broadness prevailed at the 
Advisory Board meeting last Saturday. A disposition to in- 
clude all departments of pottery, thus giving each member an 
equal chance to develop his own particular style, rememl^ering 
— imperative^ — that the rudiments of art are as necessary as 
the rudiments of music. Whether it is the human voice, a 
violin, cornet, pianoforte, or drum, the same knowledge of 
tunes, spaces, notes, time, etc., must be mastered by those 
aspiring to be musicians. So in art, relation, proportion, 
construction, harmony of color, etc., nuist be mastered l^y 
those aspiring to be artists. 
We urge our members to adopt the study course this year, 
it is absolutely /ree and is one of the benefits accrueing to mem- 
bers of the League. 
A letter of resignation to the Advisory Board from Cora 
A. Randall explains her inability to do justice to the League 
as treasurer, because she is already overburdened with club 
work. She expresses loyaltj^ and a desire to aid in some 
department less burdensome. Mr. i\.lbert Keith was elected 
to fill the vacanc3\ 
Belle B.\rnett Vesey, 
President, N.L.M.P. 
Albert Keith, Treasurer, 
No. 5745 Madison Avenue. 
BRUSH WORK 
As Applied to Decorative Art, by W. P. Jervis (Author of the Encyclopedia 
of Ceramics) and F. H. Rhead 
IT is a matter of wonder no less than of regret that the use 
of the brush as a medium for expressing form is not in- 
cluded in the curriculum of our public schools, for to the 
receptive mind of the young it is just as easj'^ to teach form as 
it is to teach sound. Sounds are learned by constant repetition 
much more than by the acqtiired knowledge that a certain 
combination of letters is required to form a word. A pupil 
learns to spell correctly, but his pronunciation nine times out 
of ten is formed from his environment, otherwise we would 
presumabty all speak correct English, in place of the hetero- 
geneous language now in use. It would not require a great 
stretch of the imagination to consider this a parallel to drawing 
in outline from a cast and drawing direct from an object with 
a brush. A student trained to draw from a cast develops the 
mechanical accuracy of an engraver, whilst one trained to the 
use of the brush attains the freedom of a painter; in other words 
one would be able to spell correct^, the other to speak cor- 
rectty. Whatever the arguments may be pro and con the 
advisability of superseding line work by brush work, we 
cheerfully admit the impossibility of doing so for all purposes. 
