In 2000, I received my PhD from the Royal College of Art at a convocation ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, London. The doctorate was presented by Sir Christopher Frayling, marking the completion of five years of studio-based research in the RCA’s School of Materials.

It was a memorable occasion, and an opportunity to reflect on an intensive period of experimentation that fundamentally changed the way I thought about materials, making and artistic practice. It was during these years that I developed an approach to monoprinting that remains central to my work today: allowing the material itself to create the mark, rather than directing every gesture with a brush.

Five Years of Material Research

My doctoral research explored innovative printing and surface-decoration techniques for industrial polymer materials, particularly flexible plastics.

I was interested in how processes associated with textile printing could be adapted to materials that were not traditionally considered textiles. Through experiments with reflective foils, flocking, transparent surfaces and inflatable constructions, I developed new possibilities for colour, pattern, texture and three-dimensional form.

These investigations were both technical and artistic. I wanted to understand how plastics behaved, but also how their visual and cultural identities might be transformed.

Could a synthetic material associated with mass production and disposability acquire the richness and expressive qualities of painting? Could printing change not only its appearance but also our perception of its value?

The research required sustained practical experimentation, often working through the unpredictable relationships between inks, coatings, adhesives, surfaces and the physical properties of the plastics themselves.

Over time, I began to see these interactions as an essential part of the creative process. The material was not simply a passive surface on which to impose an image. Its behaviour could influence the direction of the work and suggest possibilities I had not originally imagined.

Monoprinting: Allowing the Material to Make the Mark

One of the most enduring discoveries of my RCA years was the potential of monoprinting as a way of generating images through the behaviour of materials themselves.

Unlike a brushstroke, which follows the movement of the artist’s hand, a monoprinted mark emerges through contact, pressure, transfer and the particular properties of the printing surface. Working with polymers introduced further possibilities because the material could influence the image in unexpected ways.

I became fascinated by this exchange between intention and chance.

A printed surface might produce a mark I had not anticipated, which could then suggest another experiment, another arrangement or an entirely different direction. Each result opened up a series of permutations. I could repeat a process without ever producing precisely the same image.

There is something deeply satisfying about this. It is the printer in me who enjoys the spontaneity and unpredictability of the mark, the moment when I relinquish some control and allow the material to take part in the composition.

This is also where I experience a sense of flow. The process becomes absorbing because I am responding to what appears rather than following a predetermined image. One decision leads to another, and the work develops through a succession of discoveries.

Monoprinting has remained central to my practice since those RCA years. I have returned to its principles in different materials, scales and contexts, using the possibilities of transfer, variation and material behaviour to generate new forms of painting.

For me, the excitement lies not simply in producing an unusual surface, but in finding a method that continually renews the act of making.

Research Beyond the College

By the time I received my doctorate, the research was already finding applications beyond the RCA.

In 1997, I had exhibited experimental printed inflatable sculptures at the college’s Work in Progress exhibition. That work led to a commission from Dr Susan Mossman at the Science Museum, where my printed inflatable chair and dress were presented for the opening of the Challenge of Materials gallery.

Related experiments were also selected for a British Council touring exhibition of Royal College of Art graduates.

These opportunities were important because they placed my work in different contexts: art, design, material science and public exhibition. They demonstrated that a technical investigation could generate questions extending well beyond its original research setting.

I was beginning to understand that the processes I had developed were not simply a collection of specialist skills. They offered a visual language that could be revisited, adapted and extended across different forms of artistic practice.

A Continuing Resource

Looking back, I regard the doctorate less as the conclusion of a period of study than as the establishment of a lasting creative resource.

The techniques and material knowledge I developed at the RCA have continued to inform my work with painting, printed surfaces, flexible structures and installations. Some have been developed into new forms; others remain possibilities I would still like to explore.

But perhaps the most important legacy has been the relationship between control and unpredictability that I discovered through printing.

I enjoy establishing the conditions in which an image can emerge, without knowing exactly what it will look like. The material becomes an active participant, and each result offers another possibility to pursue.

This way of working has shaped my approach to painting, teaching and collaboration. It encourages experimentation, attentiveness and a willingness to follow unexpected developments rather than impose a fixed outcome.

Receiving my doctorate at the Royal Albert Hall was therefore both a personal achievement and a beginning. It marked the completion of five years of research, but the artistic questions that emerged from those years have remained with me.

I continue to return to them: what can a material become, how can its properties generate new forms of expression, and what happens when the artist allows the material to make its own mark?

Doctoral Research

Qualification: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Institution: Royal College of Art, London

School: School of Materials

Convocation: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, 2000

Doctorate presented by: Sir Christopher Frayling

Research period: Five years of studio-based investigation into innovative printing and surface-decoration technologies for polymer materials

Key methods: Monoprinting, experimental polymer printing, reflective foils, flocking, transparent surfaces and inflatable constructions

Related projects: Royal College of Art Work in Progress exhibition, 1997; Science Museum Challenge of Materials, 1997; British Council touring exhibition of Royal College of Art graduates, 1998–2000.