Drawing the White Cup

"He (Wayne Thiebaud) loved teaching, he says, because he loves the craft of art, which he believes must be learned patiently and respectfully, otherwise it can't be learned at all. Art is Darwinian for Thiebaud: it evolves incrementally, building on itself and a knowledge of its own past. 'Trying to get students to draw a white cup can take weeks,' he says, 'and they ask me, 'Do we really need to do this?' And I tell them it would be great if you could make a brilliant end run around all that stuff, but with painting there's no such thing - at least I haven't found it.'"

Source: Portraits by Michael Kimmelman