A growing number of artists believe drawing is essential for all good art and they concur with renowned Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 -1564) that it should be "plain to all, design or drawing as it is called by another name, constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture and every other kind of creative expression."

The Drawing Society of Canada was founded to protect that fountainhead through a carefully planned strategy to preserve and promote drawing as the most intimate form of visual arts.

Gerrit Verstraete AOCA, founder of the Drawing Society of Canada, became increasingly aware of the almost impossible task of fine art drawing to emerge from the shadows of painting and sculpture. After 35 years of drawing in the classical tradition he realized the challenge to keep the incredible traditions of fine art drawing alive was formidable. The need to promote the beauty of drawing and to preserve the discipline of creative expression became evident.

The Drawing Society of Canada is an answer to that challenge with a mandate to preserve and promote drawing's Renaissance legacy and valuable traditions into the new millennium.