James McMenamin

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  print June 1963

  William Hesthal

  William Hesthal, a respected member of the Santa Bar­bara group of working artists, reports on his recent progress with an im­pressive body of work. There are 20 oils and about 50 works in other media, drawings, gouaches and mixed.

  In general the work shows a gentle growth and enriching of a style which was essentially formed by 1960. His mode is abstract-expressionist, but kept from academism by undertones of the most somber human considerations, treated as allusions, always vague. Con­fetti of gaudy scripture whips and drib­bles, establishing a temporary eye­ carnival. Then, as if to cancel

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  print June 1963

  Robert Moesle

  This is the first Santa Barbara one-man showing of paintings and drawings by Robert Moesle. Oils predominate, medium to small. Moesle has spent some time in art studies in England. The dominant feeling, which combines elegant drafting with spooky subject matter, suggests a gleaning from Bacon. The larger canvases are not well sustained but a satisfactory balance of drawing, metaphysical sub­ject and paint-mystique appear in sev­eral of the small works, especially Mask of the Hypocrite.

  ––James McMenamin

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  print May 1963

  “Etchings by James McBey”

  The UCSB gallery is currently showing half of a group of 25 black ink etchings by Scottish artist James McBey. These works are a gift to the University by the artist’s widow, acting upon a suggestion by Miss Margaret Mallory and Mrs. Ala Story of Santa Barbara. Born in Scotland in 1883, McBey had become, by the start of World War I, one of England’s top graphic artists. He was well-known as a portraitist and artist-reporter with Allenby in the desert fighting.

  All the work in the Santa Barbara group which contains landscapes, architectural studies and war scenes are technically excellent,

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  print May 1963

  James Armstrong

  A native Santa Barbaran, Armstrong, 25, has traveled and studied extensively. This, his first show, would have been helped by stricter editing of stylistic variations. His best thinking has gone into a series of dark, sensitive, vertically attenuated oil-wash paintings containing misty fleeting image references. Sensuously pleasing and elegant is his large oil, City Image.

  —James McMenamin