FOUR decades of printmaking in Fife will be celebrated at an exhibition which opens in Dunfermline this week.

The display at Fire Station Creative will showcase the fine art of printmaking and the outstanding creativity and skills of 20 Fife Dunfermline Printmakers (FDPW) members.

Techniques on show will include etching, relief, screen printing and collagraph.

FDPW has provided a workshop facility for fine art printmakers in Fife, both experienced and complete beginners, for the last 40 years.

It began in 1981 in the basement of Fife Council’s Dell Farquharson Community Centre where it has stayed ever since.

Workshop chairperson, Sheila Carduff, explained: "We have always been a true artists’ cooperative run by the artists themselves.

"The fact we are still here after 40 years and continue to organise exhibitions, courses and print making facilities for over 30 artists, says something about the quality of our facilities and our ability to motivate and organise ourselves.”

Also included in the exhibition will be 15 prints specially editioned for the 40th anniversary show, on the theme ‘Big Sky'.

"This special edition of prints was quite a challenge even for our most experienced printmakers,” said Sheila. “We stipulated the paper size was to be 56cms by 78cms which is quite large for some printing processes.

"It pushed everyone in the development process and caused some lively debate. We all pulled together offering encouragement and practical help where needed.

“That’s one of the great features of being part of a workshop – helping one another to develop their printmaking skills, share knowledge and ideas and providing a creative and stimulating environment to be creative in.”

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 who didn’t want to travel to Edinburgh to print so decided to set up a Fife facility.

Determined to realise their goal, they raised a £1,000 by selling fine art prints in a front room at Abbot House 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 attended the workshop.

There have also been cultural exchanges with artists in Japan, work exhibited in Hong Kong and Lithuania and participation in the international print conference IMPACT 8 held in Dundee in 2013.

The exhibition at Fire Station Creative opens tomorrow (Friday) and is on until April 30.