#0000 "The Glass Goat"

From the summer of 1967... a lifetime ago.

This is my very first charcoal drawing with Mario Airomi. It was a glass goat that he had on his shelf. On my first day, my parents just wanted me to draw and get Mario's honest opinion if I should bother coming back the next Saturday morning. The lessons were two dollars for two hours from 9 am to 11 am more or less. Dad was doing some work on the one room cottage of Lilly and Mario and that is how I first started to take art lessons. I would continue painting with Mario until he passed on in1976. It got so he just wanted me to come to paint whenever I wanted. He called me Pheeel. He confided to my parents that I was his favourite pupil. I was in Grade 7 and still stuttering along. Mario was my friend and mentor and I was incredibly fortunate to have this master from Florence Italy start me on my way..

This sketch is numbered as zero and I suppose it is the starting place for my artistic journey. I had drawn and sketched from when I could hold a pencil but to my knowledge none of that has survived. I had not actually taken a step yet but was about to under Mario's guidance. One starts with charcoal on paper and learn the meaning of value. Colour was still in the distant future.

On the back of the paper is a faint charcoal drawing of person from the nose down to the chest. Nothing is ever wasted and apparently this paper had seen a previous life.