ART | Drawings

"Drawing like thought is a product of the mind. The back-forth movement of each pencil stroke mark is actually the enduring mark left by the mind. The pencil is thus an artificial addition to the hand very much like a prosthesis that requires constant checking and supervision. Even when the magical moment appears in a split second, I always ponder the value of what appears before me and consider what should and should not be committed to paper. Drawing is not about seizing the prey, a mere transfer of what is seen, but comprises the act of searching, correcting, revising in an exercise to try and understand and tame a situation."

African Dance

African Dance

Pen & Ink
55 x 75 cm
Signed, 1992

“The western culture’s left to right read/write convention seems to be contradicted by the opposite movement of the unfolding of the story from right to left, accompanied by the accumulation of detail. The genesis of the drawing is intimated at the end of this presumed, left-right scanning, as well as by the unwrapping of the image’s finish as we scan towards the right we read toward and into its past. The three conversing women are very meditative, while the three males are involved in a physical activity somewhere between dance and military march”.
Caesar Attard, Artist

Portrait of Antoine Camilleri I

Portrait of Antoine Camilleri (I)

Pencil
36 x 32 cm
Signed, 1985

“Whoever knows Joseph Paul Cassar has a true friend.  He is one of my best artist-friends”.
Antoine Camilleri, Artist

Portrait of Antoine Camilleri (II)

Pencil
36 x 32 cm
Signed, 1985

“I came to know Antoine in 1978 and particularly between 1981 and 2004 we spent a lot of time together discussing his art and other topics.  It was during this period that I took advantage to conduct a series of interviews, and on one such occasion I executed a couple of sketches.  In this study Antoine is depicted next to one of his works: the artist as thinker and doer. He appreciated what I was doing, he encouraged me and he believed in me.  This drawing is testimony of the times we spent together”.

Portrait of Antoine Camilleri II
Portrait of Eman

Portrait of Eman

Pencil
33 x 19 cm
Signed, 1980

“Eman and I worked together for a number of years in the early 1980s.  We visited each other’s studios, discussed art and travelled abroad visiting museums.  It was a rich period of sharing and growing in the experience of art.  This drawing executed in 1980 was the basis of a later painting I did on canvas in striking reds. During this time, my sketching was an exciting experience concerned with capturing the essence of things with dots and a few dynamic lines.  My 6B pencil was always kept sharp to record a moment in time”.

Portrait of Linda

Pen & Ink
51 x 38 cm
Signed, 1987

“The Portrait of Linda Pellegrini is of an Italian lady Joseph befriended in Kenya.  She sits frontally with crossed legs. She is wearing spectacles and a long dress and her hair is gathered in a head scarf.  The half smile on her lips lends a serene expression to her face, but her eyes do not meet those of the viewer.  The artist patiently hatches and cross-hatches to render the anatomical details of the face, neck and arms and also the shadow cast by the figure into the plain background”.
Tony Sciberras, Artist

Portrait of Linda
Portrait of Mary

Portrait of Mary

Pencil
22 x 17 cm
Signed, 1980

“There is the slight withdrawn shy smile of Mary – where working towards watching, working towards recording are both keenly made visible.”
Steve Blundell, Artist & Writer

Portrait of My Grandfather

Pencil
17 x 12 cm
Signed, 1980

“I vividly remember drawing my grandfather and grandmother at Qormi.  The drawing session was not planned, but I just picked up a piece of paper and impulsively drew what I watched. I recorded their likeness with the feelings I had for them.  It was a very fast process, a scribbled vision done with the least possible lines captured in a glimpse”.

Portrait of My Grandmother

Portrait of My Grandmother

Pencil
28 x 16 cm
Signed, 1980

“My drawing habit during this early time in my artistic career was all about capturing the essence.  Empty spaces between and around a few decisive lines was enough.  I did not want to add any details.  No information was put on paper if I realised that I could do without it”.

Two Nudes in Movement

Two Nudes in Movement

Charcoal
50 x 76 cm
Unsigned, undated

“Since his earliest days of artistic training he has been well grounded in the disciplines and challenges of drawing from life.  He has, fortunately, also had the intuitive good sense to retain and nurture this skill rather than consider it as a mere stepping stone to more noble achievements. A drawing by Joseph Paul Cassar reveals his understated command of this demanding medium.  The thickness, sharpness, density and texture of a simple line might change and develop in the space of a millimetre, such is the breath of expressive nuance that drawing can reveal in the hands of a worthy practitioner."
Dennis Vella, Art Critic and Historian

Zivadinka

Charcoal
27 x 25cm
Unsigned, undated, c.2004

Zivadinka, charcoal, 27 x 25cm,Unsigned, undated c.2004