PhD Research

Thesis title: Drawing and Etching Place: What are the experiential and material characteristics of British contemporary practice and how do they evidence reciprocity between drawing and etching?

Case study Interviews: Norman Ackroyd RA, Ian Chamberlain ARE, Ros Ford RE RWA, Jason Hicklin RE, Bronwen Sleigh, David Sully

Supporting interviews: Meryl Ainslie (Director - Rabley Drawing Centre), Amy-Jane Blackhall (Ink on Paper Press - Master printer), Vincent Eames (Director - Eames Fine Art)

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the duality of practice employed by artists who draw and etch as an experiential study of practice through the evidence of the practitioners themselves. There has long been a supposition that good drawing is a natural starting point for the medium of etching but there has been little documentation about the experience of making etchings and even less about possible links between drawing and etching. This research examines the reciprocal and material understanding of etching as a technique with which to interpret experiential knowledge and the role that drawing plays in investigating and challenging the representation of place. Creative practice provides evidence in this thesis of tacit understanding, material consciousness and domain shifts; proving that learning by doing and embracing the transference of values from one area of an artist’s practice to another, reciprocally enriches both aspects.

The case studies present anecdotal descriptions of the tacitly understood and explicitly known details of their practice through interviews directed as guided conversations. The creative elements of tension and conflict, resistance and challenge, are shown to have a vital role in reciprocating creative progress. In identifying the characteristics and qualities inherent in both etching and drawing the research evidences the multiplicity of reciprocated actions behind creative artworks. The research places such characteristics and qualities firmly in an experiential context thereby advancing the current understanding of the aesthetic experience of drawing and etching.

As a practice-led researcher it makes sense for me to view the cyclical generation of information and research theory within the terminology of etching practice. Understanding a research step as a proof stage enabled me to recognise and to take into account the reciprocal actions of creative research as working proof methodology. My aim is that the contents of this thesis will offer a different perspective on the position of drawing within practice and enable the contemporary etcher to develop their ability to be reflectively self-critical.

As the research concludes I will show that the nature of reciprocity between etching and drawing practices lies in a tacitly synthesised experiential and material exchange.