PRUDENCE HEWARD

 

Post 205  -by Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

Efa Prudence Heward was Montreal born (1986-1947) painter of human subjects but also excelled in landscapes and still-life. She preferred the term ‘figure art to portraits. She was known for her sensitive and bold depictions of the women figures, with an eye to issues of class, gender, and race. Most of her figure paintings are of women, ‘who often return the viewer’s gaze, and who are realistically rendered rather being idealized’

Her, women’s figures are always set in the background of diffused landscapes. Her independent landscapes were in impressionists style. She was known for ‘brilliant acid colours, sculptural treatment, and intense expression through colour contrasts’. Heward's works show considerable consistency of quality and style.

Heward ’s. work was influenced by schools of European modernism, and she used that as a formality of just being with it. The European styles provided her ‘with a dynamic visual vocabulary’. Heward became one of the most innovative artists of Canada of early 20^th C.

She was part of a Montreal-based Beaver Hall Group (1920–21), an artistic collective comprised primarily, though not exclusively, of professional female artists (like André Biéler, Emily Coonan, Robert Pilot, Anne Savage, Albert Robinson, Lilas Torrance Newton and others). Heward was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters and the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal, as well as a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. 

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SAMUEL PROUT

Post 204  -by Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

Samuel Prout (1783-1852), was a British water-colourist, known for his English landscape paintings and picturesque architecture illustrations. He was one of the masters of water-colour architectural painting. His significant contribution was of not only on-site sketches and water colour paintings, but lithographic prints from them. He was known for exploring new media. He authored several art handbooks based on his travels throughout Europe.

John Ruskin has said, ‘sometimes, I tire of JMW Turner, but never of Prout’.

Prout was the best user of lithographic art-form in England. He explored the technique of using a pen outline in his watercolours, which gave his art distinct look and evidenced his strength in the draftsmanship.  In Europe Prout began to capture the picturesque features of the architecture, and his hand recorded them with deftness. 

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THOMAS MATTHEWS ROOKE

 

Post 203 -Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842-1942) was a British watercolourist. He was a print-maker, illustrator, painter and teacher. He worked as a designer, as an assistant to other artists.

He was commissioned by John Ruskin to make architectural drawings as a record for threatened landscapes and buildings. He played a vital role in encouraging his student to break into the world of publishing, He vigorously persuaded commercial publishers to recognize the value of the medium.

He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Water-colour Society in 1891 and a full Member in 1903. He lived a very long life and was working into his 98th year. 

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