National Art Education Association

William P. Weston, Artist and EducatorAuthor(s): Tony RogersSource: Art Education, Vol. 37, No. 5, Art Education in Canada (Sep., 1984), pp. 27-29Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3216163 .

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William P. Weston, Artist and Educator

/_- Tony Rogers

William P. Weston was born in London, England, in 1879. The youngest of eight chil- dren, he had a typical middle class Victorian

upbringing. From 1895 to 1899, he at- tended the Battersea Pupil-Teacher Centre and the Borough Teacher Training College. When he started teaching in the fall of 1899, he had not had any art training other than was usual for all teachers. However, from 1901 to 1908, he took a total of sixteen courses at Putney Art School and gained first class standing in eleven. Though the Board of Education had taken over art examinations by 1901, subjects offered were largely un- changed from those given during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Therefore, Weston received a thorough grounding in drawing skills and design as had Walter Smith before him. In later years, Weston was grateful that his courses had included training in drawing from memory, and he never wavered in the belief that all design should be based on natural forms. He regretted his lack of painting courses but overcame this shortcoming by painting constantly.

Weston married in 1908 and, the following year, arrived in Vancouver, Canada, with his wife and newborn child. He was an experienced teacher, well-trained in Victorian methods. The revolution in British art methods that was later to be typified by people such as Marion Richardson had already begun; the 1908 London County Coun- cil conference on the teaching of draw- ing was evidence of this, but it was the old ways that Weston brought with him.

Weston took a position as art teacher at King Edward High School, one of the two secondary schools in the city. We must assume that he was a

"The Summit" by William P. Weston. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. success because he was made Drawing Supervisor for the Vancouver School District after only one year. This gave him the opportunity to observe all the city schools, and he started to develop ideas of what a school art program should be. His annual reports to the Board of Trustees drew attention to the strengths and weaknesses of art teaching in the Vancouver system. His firm belief that art work should rest on a strong framework of skills came through clearly, and his particular in- terest with memory drawing and design were evident.

A most important and hitherto somewhat neglected branch of our work, memory drawing, has been taken up with great success by the senior grades during the past year . . This branch of the work is of great educational value, as it gives the pupils the opportunity to apply the prin- ciples previously learned and requires

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Art Education September 1984

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"Canada's Western Ramparts" of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

more mental activity than continued direct copying from objects.2

This is not to suggest that he only talked of his particular interests; he clearly recognized that all aspects of the art program were important. He was sensitive to differing needs of students in drawing classes and pointed out that, while some were interested in fine arts, many more were interested in practical arts. He organized exhibitions of student work that were shown as far afield as Toronto and Melbourne. He aided teachers with advice and by giv- ing classes in art and art methods at night. There was an obvious dedication to his work and an effort to deal creatively with the problems of the growing system. The life style in British Columbia suited him, and he had the dual opportunity to develop his ideas for art education and his work as a painter. Weston fell in love with the mountains and sea and was to spend much of his life capturing them on can-

by William P. Weston. Courtesy of the National Gallery

vas. Towards the end of his life he recalled.

B.C. with its rugged mountains, tumbled beachers, hugh forest giants and beautiful tree forms shaped by wind, rain, frost and snow appealed to me strongly.

I made up my mind to study and know these things and to me the best way was by drawing and painting them constantly.2

Weston was appointed Art Master of the Provincial Normal School, Van- couver; the post exactly suited him, and he retained it until his retirement in 1946. He was clearly a charismatic and inspiring teacher. The reasons for his success as a teacher were simple, but too rarely met; he had great skill and could communicate those skills. "It was his way of talking to us. We were his students," said a student.3 A col- league who saw him teaching summed it up.

There was this personal approach towards each individual and his own ex-

pression that he seemed to be able to foster. To bring forth the timid you know .. There was almost a reverence, a feel- ing about the inspiration he gave. He seemed to be able in his teaching to find some facet in art that would interest each person somewhere along the line ... to help them choose an area where they had some latent ability.4

The thirty-two years Weston spent at the Normal School formed a con- tinuum in which there was gentle change and development; he was always looking forward while remain- ing true to the principles and theories of art education with which he started. He never deviated from his belief that an education in art should be based on learning the basic skills of drawing and design.

Be as progressive as you like, as ad- vanced as you like; but always be sure that it is one step forward and that it is not beyond your knowledge or strength.5

His long tenure at the Vancouver Normal School, by far the larger of the two in the province, meant that Weston personally trained over half the teachers in the province though his greatest influence on the curriculum came elsewhere. In the early twenties, the Department of Education saw a need for a new art text and wished it to be produced in the province. Weston, Charles Scott, and S.P. Judge under- took the challenge with enthusiasm. The Manual of Drawing and Design was published in 1924. Scott had acted as editor but Weston had been respon- sible for the major part of the book. He wrote most of the text except the short section on high school art.

The book consisted of forty pages of instructional text, twenty-eight pages of course outlines, and seventy-four pages of illustrations. Two of Weston's principal beliefs were stressed in the text: the importance of drawing as a basis for all art and the role of design based on natural forms. Drawing from memory was both advocated and cau- tioned against. This was probably because Weston believed strongly in memory drawing, though Scott did not and, as editor, insisted that the matter be left indefinite.

The manual was important because it became, in effect, the curriculum for grades one to eight. It represented a

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new approach since it introduced the term Design to the art program for the first time and expanded the role of drawing. This expansion of drawing was particularly noticeable at the lower grades. It also gave the teacher more freedom to introduce new ideas to the class, and it assumed that, while not all might be artists, all students could learn to draw adequately.

Within seven years, the Department decided that a revised edition was called for, and Weston undertook this on his own. When the book finally ap- peared in 1933 as A Teacher's Manual of Drawing, a text had been completely rewritten and the illustrations expand- ed from seventy-four plates to ninety- five. Course outlines were eliminated and replaced by more general sugges- tions within the text. It was uncom- promisingly Weston's. Memory draw- ing was strongly advocated; design was central; and drawing skills underlay all. More freedom of expression was advocated, but a strong grounding in skills was seen as essential. The connec- tion with Weston's early training could be clearly traced, yet the ideas had been brought up-to-date. The book was a success; it was immediately adopted by another province, and the publishers considered distributing it in England. Like its predecessor, the Manual became the curriculum.

Two years later, however, the government commenced a complete revision of the curriculum. Weston was appointed chairman of both the elementary and secondary art cur- riculum committees. He was in fact the sole appointed member of the elemen- tary committee. This gave him the op- portunity to incorporate his ideas into the elementary guide and to make direct reference to his text. So, by 1936, the elementary art curriculum could be said to be entirely Weston's work. It was a curriculum that was to stay in force until after the second world war and was to influence many other curricula.

With this revision, Weston had reached the peak of his achievement in spearheading change at the provincial level. He had not sought to have such a singular influence, but his quiet con- fidence and his uncompromising pro- fessional standards led to his becoming the most important art educator in the province. His importance as an art educator went beyond the Normal

School and curriculum revision. For many years, he taught at the summer school for teachers in Victoria where he was able to inspire even more teachers; he taught night school during the winters in Vancouver and gave lessons to local sketch clubs. During the second world war, he taught sum- mer school to interned Japanese teachers, organised art appreciation classes for the university extension ser- vice, and gave lectures.

More than anything else, Weston's influence on art in the province may have come about because of his stature as an artist. While he had a great in- fluence as an art educator, he was also at the forefront as an artist and was one of the key figures in development of the B.C. style. When, in later years, he looked back over his life, he recognized that he and Emily Carr had been the only two uncompromising painters during the interwar period. He particularly admired Emily Carr because she was painting for a living yet never allowed herself to paint for a market.

Recognition for western painters came slowly during the interwar years, but when it did come, Weston's worth was recognized. His work was among the first western paintings exhibited at the National Gallery at Ottawa in 1930. He was the first western painter to be invited to join the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933; he was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1936 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Artists, London, in 1938. His paintings began to be shown internationally. Populari- ty came to Weston when, in 1941, Princess Alice, visited Vancouver, saw a show of Weston's work, and bought a painting as a birthday gift for her husband. This was all enthusiastically reported by the newspapers, and Weston was amused to find himself an "overnight success." From then on his work was eagerly awaited, but he con- tinued to paint carefully and com- petently with each work advancing his creative path. Today, artists look back with great respect to what he ac- complished. As Gordon Smith, one of today's most influential West Coast painters, said in 1974, "I think even his severest critics recognize Weston as a key figure in British Columbia art ... more so than pretty well anyone."6

After his retirement from the Nor-

mal School in 1946, Weston traveled the province, giving lectures on art on behalf of the University of British Co- lumbia, refining his new ideas, and developing his art. When a retrospec- tive of his work was held in 1959, more people crowded into the gallery than had ever done so before. He continued to paint vigorously until his death at the age of eighty-eight. He had never sought to dominate the art field. He had never wished to dominate art education. He just happened to be there and to have the persistence and zeal to consistently advocate what he believed. His successor at the Normal School, Elmore Ozard, should perhaps have the last word.

I still believe that he had an amazing future feeling about art education and education in schools and what really art could do for people ... I still think that in both art and art education he was one of the early pioneers and great leaders.7 a

Tony Rogers is a former school prin- cipal and currently a doctoral student in Social and Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Van- couver, B.C.

References

Scott, C., Weston, W.P., and Judge, S.P. (1924). The teacher's manual of draw- ing and design. Toronto: Nelson.

Weston, W.P. (1933). A teacher's manual of drawing. Toronto: Nelson.

Notes

'Tenth Annual Report of the Vancouver School Board, 1912, p. 38.

2Note from Weston to Dr. Ben Kanee, dated 23 December, 1965.

3Violet Sketchley, who was a student of Weston in 1938. Interview, March 1983.

4Elmore Ozard in an interview with Cal Opre, 1974.

SQuoted in Provincial Normal School Annual, 1931, p. 74.

6Elmore Ozard. Interview, 1974. 7Elmore Ozard. Interview, 1974.

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