Amateur Artist

On the Art of A. P. Coleman by David P. Silcox**

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals.He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. This is the more surprising, perhaps given that he was a geologist and that at Victoria College we have a tradition of hatching poets rather than painters.

**This essay, originally published as part of the 1994 exhibition, "A.P. Coleman, Geologist 1852 - 1939: Science, Art and Discovery," has been reproduced here with the permission of the author.