Classical art training

Casein painting, 1953

I appreciate all the intense art training I got in school. This traning now allows me to move from figurative art to abstract with ease. Those were the days when we were taught to really see by drawing accurately. We were only allowed to use black and white in our first semester. The object or the skeleton had to first be completely understood and transferred to paper through pencil, ink or charcoal. The next semester oil and casein paint and color was introduced into our work.

For the first final exam in anatomy we had to draw the bones of the body by memory and the second semester we had to draw all the muscles.
 
I still have one of my early drawings from 1952 and a small casein painting done the next
semester. I learned more from the struggle on that painting than almost anything else in art school. My teacher emotionally tormented me to get me out of my "know it all" attitude. There is a long story around this painting and the only one I will not sell.

pencil drawing, 1952