40 years of print making in Fife
40 YEARS OF PRINTMAKING IN FIFE is an exhibition at Fire Station Creative, Dunfermline, celebrating the fine art of printmaking and, the outstanding creativity and skills of the members of Fife Dunfermline Printmakers. The exhibition showcases the work of over 20 artists and is an outstanding group show of contemporary printmaking techniques including etching, relief, screen printing and collagraph. All work is for sale both framed and unframed. The exhibition is on until Sunday 30 April 2023.
For 40 years Fife Dunfermline Printmakers Workshop (FDPW) has been providing a workshop facility for fine art printmakers in Fife, both experienced and complete beginners. Established in 1981 in the basement of Fife Council’s Dell Farquharson Community Centre, it still occupies the same space today.
40 years of printmaking in Fife is a wonderful exhibition by some of Scotland’s leading contemporary printmakers both professional and non-professional. All the prints are made by hand. They are not reproductions of artworks and are therefore all original. The exhibition also comprises fifteen prints specially editioned for this 40th anniversary show, on the theme ‘Big Sky.’ Each artist has responded in their own unique way and produced a varied collection of big, bold personal artworks.
The workshop was founded by five artists – art teachers John Binning and Terry Keast, college lecturer Ann Kelly, jeweller Ian Massie and potter, Margaret Oliver. They didn’t want to travel to Edinburgh to print so decided to set up a local Fife workshop. Determined to realise their goal, they raised a £1,000 by selling fine art prints in a front room at Abbot House, Dunfermline and after some fierce negotiations with Dunfermline District Council, secured match-funding from the district council and later, a 25-year lease for the basement of the Dell Farquharson Centre. The first piece of equipment they bought was a star-wheel press for etching, followed by a leather press for relief printing and started building the bones of a workshop round this equipment. Word quickly spread among artists in Fife and the central belt and a thriving printmaking community was established as well as an annual exhibition programme.
Over the years Master Printmakers such as Alfons Bytautus, Elspeth Lamb, Kate Downie, Frances Walker, Leena Nammari, Gillian Murray, Carol Robertson and Robert Adam have either editioned or run masterclasses at the workshop.
The workshop has also taken part in cultural exchanges with artists in Japan, exhibited work in Hong Kong and Lithuania and participated in the international print conference IMPACT 8 held in Dundee in 2013. That same year, The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust invited the workshop to take part in celebrations at the Scottish Parliament to celebrate Andrew Carnegie’s legacy. They ran a series of public demonstrations to compliment an exhibition of portraits screen printed by the American artist Andy Warhol.
Over its 40 years, the workshop has been grateful for the support of the former Dunfermline District Council, Fife Council and The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.