Praeterita

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan, 2001 "Sketchbooks in general... seem to contain mainly studies for paintings. For me, the sketchbooks are more like a secret and wholly spontaneous   jeu d'esprit   and some of them I like as much as anything I have ever done. They are invariably without premeditation. I mean not only that I have no plan when I make them, I also have no plan to make them."--Robert Motherwell.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Interlochen, Michigan, 2001 "I never draw except with brush and paint."--Claude Monet.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Brooklyn, May 2001 "Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of painting. Drawing contains everything, except the hue."--Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Three views of Havana Vieja rooftops, Cuba, 2001 "Beautiful colours can be bought in the shops on the Rialto, but good drawing can only be bought from the casket of the artist's talent with patient study and nights without sleep."---Tintoretto.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Six drawings of the Malecon, Havana, Cuba, 2001 (click on image to embiggen) "Drawing and colour are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more the colour harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes."---Paul Cezanne.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Vermont woods, 2000 "The very act of drawing an object, however badly, swiftly takes the drawer from a woolly sense of what the object looks like to a precise awareness of its component parts and particularities ."---Alain de Botton.     Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Coniston Water, UK, 2000 " I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen." -- Frederick Franck.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Somewhere in Portugal, 1998 "The process of drawing is, before all else, the process of putting the visual intelligence into action, the very mechanics of visual thought. Unlike painting and sculpture it is the process by which the artist makes clear to himself, and not to the spectator, what he is doing. It is a soliloquy before it becomes communication." --- Michael Ayerton (English artist, printmaker, critic, 1921-1975).   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Cintra, Portugal, 1998 "On occasion I have drawn as a release from painting. The economy in using paper, pencil, charcoal and crayon can help towards a greater gamble and higher rewards. I also find that drawing can generate ideas more rapidly than painting."---William Scott (British Abstract Expressionist, 1913-1989).   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Positano, Italy, 1998 "Drawing is the cornerstone of the graphic, plastic arts. Drawing is the coordination of line, tone, and color symbols into formations that express the artist's thought."---John Sloan.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Amalfi, Italy, 1998 "When I make my drawings... the path traced by my pencil on the sheet of paper is, to some extent, analogous to the gesture of a man groping his way in the darkness." -- Alberto Giacometti.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Rainstorm, Death Valley California, 1997 "Drawing is not the same as form; it is a way of seeing form."---Edgar Degas.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Death Valley, California, 1997 "I make sure to have time to draw every day. That way I can find out what I'm feeling, then use those ideas in my paintings and drawings." - Robert Levers.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Rainstorms, Mojave desert, 1997 watercolour sketches "Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence." -- Henri Matisse.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Hackney, London, 1995 (from memory) "It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well." -- Kenneth Clark.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Jordaan, Amsterdam, 1991 “Rough sketches, which are born in an instant in the heat of inspiration, express the idea of their author in a few strokes, while too much effort and diligence sometimes sops the vitality and powers of those who never know when to leave off.”—Giorgio Vasari.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Looking out at the Place de la Bastille at night, Paris, 1990 “My attitude towards drawing is not necessarily about drawing. It's about making the best kind of image I can make, it's about talking as clearly as I can.”—Jim Dine.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Seville rooftops, 1989 “The art of drawing which is of more real importance to the human race than that of writing   should be taught to every child just as writing is.”—John Ruskin.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

France, 1987 "Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times.It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." -- Keith Haring   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Abandoned church, Fayence, France, 1987 “One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil.”—Ingres and Balthus.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader