Enid Ratnam Keese's metier is Paper Drypoint. She's a wizard at it and she's a fantastic teacher as well.
She has her large pieces hanging in galleries all over Australia, with a very large piece in the Canberra War Memorial. She had five very happy students for this workshop!

Works in progress......

Bernard Ollis is Wendy Sharpe's life partner. He is an accomplished artist too, and as you see their works side by side you can see there is an interplay between their subjects and how they see them. Their works are completely different, and yet, and yet, there is a cross pollination. To have Bernard's works here alongside Wendy's is a joy. Thank you Bernard!

I met Wendy Sharpe in Morocco last October on a tour where she was the guest artist.  It was a special holiday and needless to say I learned a lot! So when an unexpected space occurred in our Gallery exhibition timetable, I asked her if she would be so kind as to send down some of her Limited Edition Prints. These are some of them... These are taken with my phone, so not Museum Quality, but nevertheless you get a sense of her sensuous lines and her quirky view of the life that is being lived around her. They range from drypoints (the two from Morocco), to one or two plate soft ground etchings. I have to say the two plate etchings are extremely beautiful and are my favourites. I am so pleased Wendy was able to send these down and very proud to have them at Firestation Print Studio. AND they have spawned interest in soft ground etching.... which leads to another workshop! Thanks Wendy!!!!

First Lino & Print Club meet today. Lots of people doing lots of interesting things. Challenging themselves, having cups of tea and chats. Making art socially. Learning things. Fun. Love it!!!!

Book Arts started with a bang this year as we are concentrating on making the book for our Bird images. Harry Simon saw the proposal and immediately said that the book was much too small and we have doubled the size of the book. It is now a grand tome, and with that comes a lot of construction difficulties. Our group of dedicated bookmakers, Liz Batliwalla, Belinda Kopietz, John Hinds, Wendy Leason, Nyrel Saunders and Suzanne Kaldor are learning a lot about the craft of bookbinding. We have had some assistance from Debra and Jim from the Victorian Bookbinders Guild. Its going to be beautiful. Here is a couple of images from the book:

Below: our bookmakers hard at work....

For the past three years we have been exchanging Postcards with PressNorth, Townsville. For the past two years we have been inviting another printmaking centre to join us in a three way exhibition. Last year was Cork Printmakers, Ireland. This year is a group of printmakers from Tsbata, Japan.
We have decided that we will make Firestation Print Studio's postcards into a book and donate to one of our august institutions. Our Book Arts group will undertake this later in the year. We have now decided to do this project every two years in future.
Below is the exhibition of Postcards in Tsbata Town, Japan

Here is the exhibition in Perc Tucker Gallery, Townsville

Here is the exhibition in Firestation Print Studio Gallery

The annual Editions exhibition at Tacit Gallery includes 11 FPS artists this year. I am very proud of these artists and their work is outstanding. Artists in this exhibition are: Bronwyn Rees, Jackie Gorring, Lisa Sewards, Elizabeth Banfield, Jan Stickfiled