Triusart

Let me start by saying that Trius is the greatest living artist I know personally. Sometimes when he draws it looks like the picture is coming out of smoke. I mentioned once that he drew like Rubens — he said he wasn’t comfortable with that. His influences are Serov and Vrubel; and of course the old masters.
My two boys, then aged 3 and 6, and myself their daddy, all took lessons from Trius for several years. I have become good enough freehand that people have gone «wow,» and my boys still draw, and it’s not stick figures.
I’ll tell a few stories. One, I was doing a Michelangelo sketch. Trius looks at it, tells me it’s all wrong. I say «yeah, it’s not easy for me, but I like Michelangelo.» Puzzled, Trius asks me to show him Michelangelo’s sketch. «Oh,» he says, «Michelangelo did it wrong. You know he drew maybe sixteen hours a day. He probably did this when he was tired; the proportion is all wrong. Your drawing was accurate, his was not.» So I learned that even great art doesn’t have to be perfect, or that perfect and wonderful are not the same.
We saw Leonardo in San Francisco without Trius, he was busy for some reason, and someone said — «this sketch must have taken weeks to do.» I said «No, it took maybe five minutes, and Leonardo wasn’t happy with it.» It was Trius that knew Leonardo, and after a while I got to know Leonardo also. We got to know the masters through their work, almost personally.
Trius had a most amazing apple he drew on his wall. I would stare at it. He wouldn’t part with it for less than it was worth, and more than I had. It was amazing, I had never seen an apple quite like the one he drew. I asked him how he did it. «Well,» he said, moving his hand over the art, «it’s a lot of planes here, lines there.» I drew apple after apple, both in books and real, and I could never approximate the apple on the wall.
Finally, I said, «I’ve never seen an apple like yours. I can’t see these planes and lines on any other apple. I’ve tried and tried.» Trius admitted, «yeah, I made it all up.» I still wonder about what it means.
I think someone richer than I has the apple.
Once I told Trius once that I wanted my boys to draw faces and hands, the harder things. He pulled out a pair of beautifully drawn praying hands. «Like this?» he said. «Yes, exactly! That’s exactly how I want my boys how to draw.» I replied.
He was solemn, «these hands were drawn by Albrecht Durer, they are in a museum. He only did them once, and probably could not do them again.» Ah.
– David Lopez.

I took private drawing and pastel lessons from Trius for well over a year, and I think my work improved greatly during that time. Trius is classically trained but not hidebound, and he is willing to help you work on the areas you choose. I always learned from his assignments, and he had lots of useful book recommendations, as well. He is very patient, and can teach at all levels, from very young children to experienced adults. I had already had years of college-​level art classes before I started working with him, but he had a lot to contribute. I always felt his plans for our lessons were personalized to me. He was very inspiring, and encouraged me to work. I would definitely recommend him as a drawing teacher. In addition, he’s just a very interesting person to talk to!