DrawingAcademy

Artwork by Anastasia Vasilyeva

In me there was always the desire to draw. I attended art school in childhood, but I was bored to draw still lifes with plastic apples and crushed colored fabrics, especially when nobody really explained what it was for. Under the circumstances my parents had to move to another city, and I did not continue art school. Now I am quite happy about this fact, because I may have avoided the wrong way of learning the basics…

Artwork by Mahlet Gebre

My name is Mahlet Birhanu Gebre, I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Growing up, I was blessed with a caring family. My late father, Birhanu Gebre, was a professional painter and he has especially encouraged me to explore art after observing my talent in drawing at an early age. As a child, I grew up surrounded by art materials and I believe it’s this early exposure that has facilitated my interest to be engaged in arts soon…

Artwork by Dave Luckett

I am a no one. A nobody. In the late 80s my life was dealt some hard turns. As a result to that I dropped out of school. I was an artist and although I began to sell work even fresh out of school. I had to abandon my art to feed myself working odd jobs with hard manual labor.

After decades of neglect to my hands, my ability to draw was beginning to run away from me. My hands were meant for art. Not for hammers and chisels. So after a short while my hands would force me into truck driving…

Artwork by Chris Goldberg

As a 17 year old I chose between art and nursing school, I let my head rule my heart and went to nursing school. A career I followed for 25 years before leaving to work in graphic design in our family business where I am still working.

4 years ago my Mother passed away which reminded me ( with a jolt) of my own mortality and I resolved to get back into art again.

I began by doing classes at local art centres whenever I could…