GILES SUTHERLAND reflects on the artistic collaboration between Dornoch-based printmaker Ian Westacott and his fellow Australian Raymond Arnold.

THE HISTORY OF artistic collaboration is long and illustrious and the current partnership between the Australian printmakers Ian Westacott and Raymond Arnold proves that the tradition continues to thrive. Both artists trained in Melbourne in the 1970s and have remained friends and collaborators since that time.

The pair are skilled practitioners of the craft of etching and whereas Westacott’s work includes detailed studies of buildings, trees and townscapes, Arnold has over the past few years focussed on ornamental French armoury in a series of work he has calls Armours à l’épreuve.

The pair are exceptional artists in thrall to their methods and materials and both confess to a deep fascination with the often complex techniques involved in the etching process.

Westacott is currently based in Dornoch, where he runs an open print studio (Studio 19 Cataibh) with his wife, the artist Sue Jane Taylor. For a number of years Arnold has visited Westacott at his home and objects, buildings and landscape in the surrounding area – as well as places as far-flung as Paris and Tasmania – have formed the subject matter of the Australians’ intense and enduring collaborative efforts.

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It’s almost as if the two have combined their individual identities to make a new creative force.

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Westcott and Arnold have established – largely through trial and error – a modus operandi which suits their respective characters and artistic goals. These ground rules – which include agreeing on a defined subject and viewing it from a particular distance and perspective – allows both artists to focus on making work which results in a unique outcome.

In ‘Ardross Novar Estate Guardians’ (1998) the artists’ attention has alighted on two ornamental stone mastiffs atop the entrance pillars to a large estate. Westacott’s view is taken from the front while Arnold’s is from the rear; the resulting plates have been overlaid and the end-product is a visually arresting image which takes time to decode.

The skill and attention to craft of these artists is palpable but so is their ability to co-ordinate their efforts so that each distinct image is almost identical in scale and drawing style. It’s almost as if the two have combined their individual identities to make a new creative force.

The technique has been employed again in the similarly intricate ‘Victorian Fountain, Dornoch’ (1997), the only difference being that the perspectival stance employed by both is the same. The result is a work which is not only beautifully crafted and visually enchanting but which appears to have been made by one artist, not two. The overlaying of images has created a subtle ‘ghost’ effect, such is the technical accuracy of the artists’ attention to scale and etching technique.

There are a wealth of equally compelling images here in this beautifully designed and presented show – not least ‘Mt Field Snow Gums’ (2003) – the only collaborative work completed ‘remotely’ via photographs. The exhibition has now ended in Helmsdale, but tours to Victoria, Australia (Australian Galleries, Collingwood, 8-31 July), a fact which underlines the international quality of this exemplary work.

© Giles Sutherland, 2005