“In drawing a figure, attach yourself before all else to determining and well-characterizing its movement. I could not repeat it to you too much: movement is life.”

“Execution is the mother of painting, discourse is its father.”

– Charles Dufresnoy, Observations sur la peinture 1649

[Le discours est le père, l’execution la mère de la peinture.]

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“The Next Eclectics”

Only light feels like light, and only nature reveals the form of nature.…

“I assure you no art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament — temperament is the word — I know nothing.”

“Recall that everything must firstly be thought, I mean all of it, unto the smallest things; so, envision the drawing, color, and arrangement; do not work without thinking about it all equally, because Nature, your only true master, has not failed to recall a single thing.”

STUDIO ESCALIER is a private studio art school and international art colony in France, founded in 2001. Designed and directed by artists for artists, it is dedicated to the contemporary classical study of drawing and painting from life.…

“Only nature well-seen, well-studied can give you the original brilliance and genuine knowledge that distinguishes the superior man from the common one. I say ‘well-seen’ because if you do not look unceasingly with a comparing eye as I’ve asked you to, you’ll get nowhere.”