“I often ask myself “What makes a good drawing good?” Many people much cleverer than me have tried to crack this one. I wrote once of its usefulness - “It can be an invaluable aid to memory, or to plan the construction of a work in any medium. Or a simple way to plug into the unconscious and introduce the humanity of man-made marks rather than those of a machine”. I’ve discovered it’s not something easily learnt or taught. I know that before beginning a drawing, a leap of faith is necessary. And I believe that we need a very strong idea of what our intentions are, and why we are doing it.

When we draw, are we making a plan of intent, a map to guide us on a journey, a study of a detail to help out in a finished work? Is one looking at the surface of an object or trying to get to the very bones of it, or doodling – hoping it will all turn out right in the end? Is it a question of looking, or understanding? There must be a way of getting to the very essence of the tree or the person, of capturing its very aliveness, rather than just reproduce it, which a camera can do rather better than us.

I suspect that drawing is to do with tension, and making constant adjustments, one line from another. That is what drawing is. An ambition for a drawing would be of a force that builds as it travels across the surface of the paper, ending in an image that breathes. If it succeeds it is because of tension. If it fails it is because the line has become slack and when the line sags we are left with something that isn’t drawing - rather a vague shadow of what it might have been.

I believe objects, a flower, a portrait, contains a truth wrapped around by its appearance, and that what you see isn’t necessarily the truth at all. There are veils behind which there are more layers, more to discover, perhaps something quite different, and behind the layers, the kernel of the subject Only by stripping them away can the centre be discovered and the outside doesn’t describe that at all. Somehow we have to get rid of the clutter that nature presents us with - the irrelevancies - to stop thinking because it’s there it must be true - but to keep our eye on the idea, because it is the idea that is our humble, human contribution - our offering. So, If we could get back to the child in us and find that blind, unquestioning courage that children have, where there are no hesitations, where each mark follows the first, dictated by the logic of the drawing, where there are no fudges, no doubts. They see the world with a great clarity, whereas our eyes are so fatigued with looking we are losing the ability to see at all - we are being bombarded with images from all sides and now have to get back to seeing things absolutely straight - as a child does.

Good drawings, as presented to us by the old and the modern masters, are a constant inspiration, a guide to real quality, to truthfulness, an imaginative record of how man regards himself and his surroundings.

We are here to celebrate drawing and we are united in our appreciation of it. I do firmly believe that when the last man alive is sitting somewhere in a desert he’ll find a stick and draw a wonderful image in the sand.

As long as we continue to draw, that strange process that starts in the eye, through the brain, and down the arm to spill out of our fingertips, we can claim to have tried honourably to make some sense of the world we live in.”