Jon Gnagy

1907-1981

I BELIEVE that you have unexplored talent. My conviction grows stronger every year as I find thousands of people just like you searching to express something. If you have not made a professional career of art I'd like to talk to you all the more.

I BELIEVE that in the life of everyone there comes a time when the Art Spirit is dominant. You may have passed it when you were 5 or 7 or 11 years of age. But it will come again several times in your life when you are looking for something outside your practical everyday routine.

—From Jon Gnagy's New Television Art Instruction Book, 1950.

I BELIEVE that you have moments when you drop your cares and wish you could feed that little spark of immortality that needs nourishment from the beauty of the world around you. This universe is full of wonders that few of us see until some part of our brain and soul is reawakened. When we again become aware of "the long reaches of the peaks of song, the rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose," as poet Edwin Markham has so aptly put it.

THIS NEW BOOK is my contribution to you the beginner to help you awaken that hidden talent so you may find happiness and genuine fun in the world around you through the hobby of drawing and painting.