Art: Maggie’s Drawers

It was enough to make an old salt weep. On a cruise to the Mediterranean last summer, the sleek, grey aircraft carrier Magnificent, 14,000 fighting tons and the pride of Canada’s navy, began looking like a ruddy art gallery. The radio-room walls sprouted brightly colored canvases, the shipwright shop was festooned with art, so was the barber shop.

An officer was the chief culprit: Lieut. Commander C. Anthony Law, D.S.C., C.D., the “Maggie’s” top training officer and onetime Canadian war artist, had started a drawing and painting class for 23 sailors who knew nothing about art.

Calling themselves “Maggie’s Art Club,” they tackled seascapes and carrier scenes at first. Later, on shore leave in Greece, Malta, North Africa, and Scotland, they hired buses and taxis, went bouncing off to paint fishing boats, beaches, mountain lakes and villages. Some seemed to model themselves on the 19th century French impressionists, some on the romantics, while others were harshly realistic. There were also a few pieces of surrealism and a scattering of abstractions. Even more interesting to Law .was the quality of the work. “I’ve tried to let them come along on their own,” he says, “and they’ve developed amazingly well.”

Just how well the Maggie’s amateurs had done was apparent last week. The carrier was in at Halifax, and one of the town’s art galleries exhibited 48 of the paintings. The crowds were large and just about everybody was impressed. Said one Canadian artist: “Some of those sailors are on the march. They’re really going places.” Maggie’s first art class is breaking up as its members get transferred to new ships. But Commander Law’s pupils say they will keep on painting—and spread the habit through the Royal Canadian Navy.