Practice

My current practice based research revolves around the subject of landscape, exploring how the nature of the experience of place, particularly landscape, might influence or inform the drawn mark. I am interested in exploring the effect that physical proximity to, or distance from, the site depicted, has upon the drawing process, the resulting image, and the making of marks, and how this in turn might impact upon the communication of meaning. For example, my research contrasts, on the one hand, the formal selectivity arising from a direct and intuitive response to the visual challenge of a moment, immersed within the landscape, with on the other a more detached, digitalised surveillance: a landscape distanced and filtered through the lens of a webcam. 

Education

• University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1982-1986)
• Royal Academy Schools (1986-1989)

Recent Exhibitions / Events

• 2023 An Artist and a Planet No 5 Drawing and Land, a series of podcasts created by MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
• 2023 Drawn Together joint exhibition 4 contemporary artists showing drawn works alongside works from the Middlesbrough Collection in Platform A Gallery Middlesbrough
• 2023 Definitions of Drawing 2, a group show , Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
• 2022 Drawing shortlisted for Trinity Bouy Wharf Drawing Prize, London
• 2022 Drawing shortlisted for Derwent Drawing Prize, London and Paris 
• 2020 Conference Paper for Drawing Conversations 3: Drawing Talking to the Sciences, Lancater University
• 2020 Drawn to Investigate, The Ruskin Museum of the Near Future, Lancaster University
• 2020 Book Chapter for Body, Space and Place in Collective and Collaborative Drawing: Drawing Conversations 2
• 2019 Marked Transitions, Auxiliary Warehouse, Middlesbrough
• 2018 Middlesbrough Art Weekender International Festival, Group show, MIMA Middlesbrough
• 2018 139 x Nothing but Good Exhibition PARK-Platform for the Visual Arts, Tilburg, Netherlands
• 2017 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London
• 2017 Sketch 2017, Rabley Drawing Centre
• 2016 "In Conversation with Basil Beattie", mima
• 2015 Contemporary British Drawing Xi'an Academy of Fine Art, China
• 2015 Drawn Conversations Exhibition an exhibition running alongside the Drawn Conversations Symposium, Coventry University
• 2015 The Imaginary Museum: Monuments and Landmarks, Leeds City Museum
• 2015 Platform Projects A5 ART-ATHINA, Athens, Greece
• 2014 Listhus Residency, Olafsfjord, Iceland
• 2014 God's Bridge, Bowes Museum
• 2013 Panel member for the Northern Drawing Symposium, mima
• 2013 Anonymous Drawings, Galerie Nord/ Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin
• 2012 Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary, Mall Galleries London
• 2012 …and After, Joint show with Atsuhide Ito, Constantine Gallery Teesside University
• 2011 Driven to Draw, Tennant Gallery Royal Academy, London

Teaching

Studying Fine Art can, if you let it, radically change the way you see and interact with the world. I work extensively (but not exclusively) with students in levels 5 and 6, helping them to develop a vibrant, investigative and open approach to the exciting possibilities that lie before them.

lesleyhicks.com

Lesley’s research interests include historical and contemporary landscape (natural and urban) painting and drawing – with a particular focus upon landscape in flux. The collection and development of her material spans a range of media and methods of working combining painting and drawing made directly on site with that made within the studio.