The forthcoming Masterworks exhibition in the Rick Faries Gallery is devoted to the art of drawing, especially the sketch.

The featured artists are Nuno Patricio and Emma Ingham.

While Ms Ingham is well known in the local art community, Mr Patricio is new to most of us.

He is the education officer at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

Ms Ingham is also teaching there.

Although Mr Patricio is a product of the Bermuda elementary and secondary school systems, he thereafter attended Coimbra University, the oldest university in Portugal.

He graduated from Coimbra with a master’s degree in fine art. Ms Ingham studied at New York’s Parsons School of Design, majoring in illustration and especially in fashion.

Mr Patricio’s drawings reflect his academic and classical training, whereas Ms Ingham’s work is rooted in her experience over many years in advertising and fashion illustration.

Her lines are freely rendered, but with the addition of colour.

We often think of drawing — especially the sketch — as something tentative and preliminary.

Frequently it is. However, drawing is so much more. It is the basis for just about all other artistic endeavour. For the artist, it is the foundation upon which everything involving art is built. It is that important.

Bearing this in mind, it is perhaps surprising that there has never been a show devoted entirely to drawing on the Bermuda exhibition circuit — at least not one that I recall.

Secrets Within the Sketch is a challenging title. What are the secrets lurking in these drawings?

Since drawing is the most intimate of all artistic undertakings, I suggest that this is one avenue whereby we may seek secrets.

What are these artists hiding about themselves that can be found within each drawing?

Another possibility for the viewing public is that we find something of our own experience within the work. What do these works reveal about us, the viewer?

One reason for me highlighting this show is that the teaching of drawing in recent years has been under threat.

This is particularly true at many UK art colleges.

It seems the thinking is that drawing skills are no longer necessary in the training of artists and is being replaced by more conceptual approaches.

I, myself, have spent my entire career educating artists and my position has been contrary to that just mentioned.

I believe it important in training artists that the student first develop their fundamental art skills, such as drawing, application of paint and with it colour — both theory and mixing — 2D and 3D design and composition.

It is also important that students gain an understanding of art history, contemporary art developments and art criticism, but it was never my place to impose on the students the direction they should go.

That is a personal matter.

This is a strong show and one I recommend.

It has secrets for you to seek. It also has surprises.

• Secrets Within the Sketch, by Emma Ingham and Nuno Patricio, opens at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art on Friday and continues until March 12