Ron McBurnie’s Artist Studio series of twenty-six etchings were made from 1993-2003. His first studio etching with David Paulson, was the result of their long association, however many of the artists that he selected to work with throughout the project came from recommendations from other artists and his particular interest in their work.
Each etching is an important record of two artists acting in blurred roles of subject, sitter, and collaborators as McBurnie explains:
In each studio visit I carried my plates into their work area set them on a table and began drawing directly onto the grounded plates with my etching needle. I initially drew the studio itself and then later after a day or so l drew the artist inside the space I had created. As a collaborative element to the etching project, I left shapes in the etching to correspond with where the artists own art works were situated in the studio. Each of the artists then worked with the etching needle directly onto my places to draw the details of their own works in those spaces.
Part of the success of the studio etchings are that artists are shown at work as if unaware of McBurnie’s presence. In some of the etchings artists appear more than once – seated, bending over a work on the floor, or standing al an easel. Euan Macleod is shown four times in his studio and therefore his is one of the most “active” images whereas in contrast John Coburn is calmly seated at his easel.
In 2006 Ron McBurnie gifted eight etchings from the series to the Cairns Art Gallery. These works are presented in this exhibition together with works by the artist sitters held in the Gallery’s Collection.
Cairns Art Gallery, Public Curators Building
Opening Hours
Mon-Fri // 9:00am–5:00pm
Sat // 10:00am–5:00pm
Sun // 10:00am–2:00pm
Image: Ron MCBURNIE, b.1957, Brisbane, Queensland, John Coburn’s studio 2002, etching, aquatint and roulette on paper, ed. AP, 51.2 x 81.4 cm, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Ron McBurnie, 2006
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