Art In W. Samoa

Two Local Artists Find an Outlet for Their Work

From Our Own Correspondent

Apia, May 13.

IT is a truly remarkable fact that the beautiful landscapes and the hand some and attractive inhabitants of the South Seas have found compara tively few interpreters amongst the great artists. Only the name of Gauguin, whose work has made the beauties of Tahiti immortal, comes to mind.

Until recent years Samoa had no such interpreter of her landscape and of her native life, although quite a number of artists have visited the islands and stayed for short periods, painting native scenery and life. Now, however, two permanent European residents have come to the fore and attracted attention overseas with their artistic and attractive creations.

Both of them have found a ready and profitable market for their work amongst American servicemen serving in the Terri tory.

One of these is Mr. Charles MacPhee.

He was born in Albany, Western Aus tralia, in 1910, and showed an aptitude for drawing at an early age, but did not follow it up. Instead, he led an adven turous life as a prospector, goldminer, station hand and farmer—even living for some time as a self-styled beachcomber on the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Suddenly remembering his artistic ability he started as a showcard and pictorial artist in Perth and Melbourne, and later as a designer for the Ray Neon Co. in Sydney, which transferred him to their new Auckland, NZ, branch. From Auck land, in 1937, he came to Samoa.

He stayed in Samoa only for a short time before he returned to Australia to work for a year as a display artist. But, already the lure of the South Seas had caught him, and he came back to Samoa in 1938 and settled here permanently. He tried his hand at a number of varied jobs before his artistic success finally convinced him of his true vocation and he became a professional artist.

His oil paintings as well as water colours have been greatly acclaimed for their full and vivid colour, their lighting effects and their superior drawn lines.

The subjects of his paintings are ex clusively Samoan scenery, particularly beach scenes with houses and village life; he also does portraits of Samoan people some particularly attractive paintings of Samoan children in the possession of Miss Downs, formerly Head Mistress of LMS Papauta Girls’ School, were last year published by her in the Children’s Magazine of the London Missionary Society.

MacPhee’s work has also been ac claimed by art experts and critics in Auckland, where he was last year elected a working member of the Auckland Society of Arts, and was strongly advised to continue his career.

Three paintings, “Western Samoa,”

“Samoa” and “Vaiala, Western Samua,” were exhibited in the Auckland Society of Arts’ summer exhibition, during De cember, and found favourable mention in the Auckland press and in a special illus trated article in “Art in New Zealand,”

December, 1943, issue.

Mr. MacPhee’s work has also been praised by the well-known artist, Will Ashton, director of the National Art Gallery of NSW.

ANOTHER Samoan artist who has turned a hobby into a profitable side-line is well-known to “PIM’ readers as a contributor on natural

science and other subjects. He is Mr.

Charles Reed, of Apia, an old resident of the Territory, whose specialised work is drawing Samoan scenery—particularly beach scenes with fales amidst palms— on Samoan tapa cloth. His creations have also found a ready market amongst the American defence forces, and many hundreds of these tapa drawings have found their way to America as souvenirs from the South Seas.

Lieut. J. McClymont, son of the former Harbourmaster of Apia, Commander D. S.

McClymont, DSO, has been killed in action. Lieut. J. McClymont served in the Samoan Administration before he en listed.