Studio: international art (40.1907)

The Art of the Painter-Etc her

The art of the painter-
etcher—etching FROM

NATURE. BY ALFRED EAST,
A.R.A., P.R.B.A., R.E.

The expression of nature by means of line is
the most artificial of all the graphic arts, yet in the
hands of a master it can become one of the most
interesting. Not only does it express the form of
things, but it should suggest their colour and move-
ment. Without the assistance of actual colour it
relies upon that suggestion with which the skill
of the master can endow it. It is therefore a
very personal art, expressing in a high degree
the peculiar temperamental and artistic qualities
of its exponent. In this respect it is as personal as
the art of the painter—even more so, indeed, for
the means used are purely artificial and therefore
freed from the obligations which attend the work
of the painter.

The painter-etcher by his technical methods
strives to obtain certain qualities which are essen-

tial to all good work, such as perfect Notan, or
the balance of light and shadow, the feeling of
infinity in the sky, the truth of aerial perspective,
and the radiation of light and heat. These
qualities vary greatly in the method of their
expression, the artist unconsciously revealing
himself in the means he employs in expressing
nature. The etcher cannot express colour qua
colour; neither does he find an outline in
nature. Nature ignores an outline; passages of
light and dark or the delineations of form simply
leave off at their boundaries, therefore the etcher
must, of necessity, introduce an outline for which
he has no authority. Yet in the absence of the
conditions which the painter must observe, he is
free to use what combination of lines he wishes
to select, and which he deems will best express
what he has to say.

With a few lines the etcher from nature gives
one the sensation of a breezy sky. Were they not
done with infinite judgment and skill, and with
that swift execution and splendid confidence which