Spectacles and Bee Still Life, 1971
Charcoal on paper, 30 x 22 1/4 inches
Lawrence Markey Gallery
“Painting and drawing is something you can enjoy without it having to be art or worrying about it being art. . . . Everybody should have that privilege and that great way of knowing things.” — Wayne ThiebaudIf you are near San Antonio, Texas in the next week, take yourself to the Lawrence Markey Gallery to see the exhibit of Wayne Thiebaud drawings from 1964-1974.
You can view more of Wayne Thiebaud's drawings plus other delights at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
"Art is one of the dirtiest words in our language; it's mucked up with all kinds of meanings. There's the art of plumbing; there's the art of almost anything that you can say." — Wayne Thiebaud
As a teenager, Thibaud landed his first job as an animator for Disney. During World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps working as a cartoonist for service publications while stationed at Mather Field outside of Sacramento. In fact, Thiebaud's Uncle Jess was a cartoonist.
Renowned for his teaching, Thiebaud emphasizes underlying drawing as the foundation of painting. He believes in the importance of drawing from life because photographic images differ too greatly from what the human eye actually sees.
Books by Wayne Thiebaud
Ben Bamsey writes in ARTWORKS that at 88, "Thiebaud still sketches, enjoys plein air and does a cartoon nearly every day." Read the March 2010 article here.
Watch this KQED video of Wayne Thiebaud. It's mostly about his painting but he points to preliminary drawings next to a painting he's working on in the studio and there's a segment of him drawing a demo in a UC Davis class.
Description of Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective at The Phillips Collection. The Catalogue.
24 Facts About Wayne Thiebaud's Early Life.
Want to do research on Wayne Thiebaud's work? You can view The Wayne Thiebaud Papers by appointment at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in D.C.
