Printmaking Exhibition at Fire Station Creative in Dunfermline until 31st March 2025

I'm delighted to be part of this printmaking exhibition at exciting arts venue Fire Station Creative in Dunfermline - with a great cafe and bar!

About:

- The Fife Dunfermline Printmakers annual show runs until Sunday 30 March 2025.

- Fire Station Creative is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

- This year the workshop has invited printmakers from South West Scotland Printmakers (SWSP) to join them.  ‘Wish you were here’ contains an exciting mix of screen prints, etchings, relief prints and monoprints from some of Scotland’s most talented printmakers.

- fifedunfermlineprintmakers.org/exhibitions/wish-you-were-here

Links:

- Fife Dunfermline Printmakers - facebook.com/fifeprintmakers

- South West Scotland Printmakers - instagram.com/swsprintmakers

- Fire Station Creative - firestationcreative.co.uk

Photos of the show:

Scroll down for some video snippets I took in the exhibition and some still photos courtesy of printmaker Susan Smith.

A great railway day out!

Make a railway day out of it with ScotRail. Dunfermline is a brilliant visit by train:

- the excellent excellent Carnegie Library & Galleries

- Dunfermline Abbey & Palace

- Pittencrieff Park with its peacocks and playparks, glasshouses and wooded waterfalled glen

- the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum

- great cafes

- great High Street

And more!

How to get there:

Get the train to Dunfermline City station and enjoy a 10-15 minute walk up to the town centre through the hilly green Public Park, or walk the interesting streets past the Alhambra Theatre.

Take your bike?

Or do as I did and get off the train one stop further at Dunfermline Queen Margaret Station and walk or cycle the mile and a half along really nice tree-lined old railway cycle path. You emerge only a short distance from the Fire Station Creative.

The printmaking exhibition at Fire Station Creative, until 31st March 2025:

My prints:

summer skies

linocut

a sky of clouds & birds

monoprint

swifts, the sound of summer

monoprint

Videos of the exhibition:

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Trains to Dunfermline City and Dunfermline Queen Margaret are half hourly or hourly from Edinburgh.

Check before your journey at - www.scotrail.co.uk

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Thank you for reading my blog. 

Spread the word and let me know about your own favourite exhibitions and favourite railway days out.

Leo du Feu

ScotRail Community Rail Champion

March 2025

#ScotlandByRail #CommunityRailChampion on facebook & instagram

Scotland By Rail - Falkirk High to Callendar Park and House

Callendar Park is a large area of beautiful woodland, parkland, play areas, pond and big old country house. Romans were here, the Antonine Wall ran along the northern edge of the site. Callendar House contains a museum telling of the history of Falkirk from before Romans to modern times. Also in there is the Park Gallery where I am currently exhibiting (the exhibition will be covered in my next post), fascinating old country house kitchen and a lovely café with views over park and woods. 

Callendar Park and House are owned by Falkirk Council and make an excellent railway day out via either Falkirk High or Falkirk Grahamston.

But first, a canal tunnel:

We got the train to Falkirk High station and started with a couple of minute detour up to the start of the Falkirk Tunnel, where Union Canal and towpath travel nearly more than 600m underground.

But this wasn't today's plan so we backtracked, walked a short distance along Slamannan Road and stepped into Callendar Park woods along a track at the west gatehouse. The moment we passed through the gate a peregrine falcon curved overhead, low and relaxed.

Into the woods.

We started by heading uphill, the opposite direction to Callendar House, to reach these views:

This painting was made from this same spot in a previous year:

Then meandering back downhill along forest tracks big and small

Walking along the remains of the Antonine Wall under beautiful beeches:

Reaching pond and park:

And to Callendar House:

The café first:

Coffee and cake and we did some sketching. I started this miniature painting:

And this view out a window on the other side:

After the café, the museum:

Next, the 2nd floor galleries:

where this really really interesting exhibition runs until March 2025.

"In this exhibition we want to celebrate Dunmore Pottery. Often viewed as art pottery, in reality it had a foot in both the industrial and the art pottery worlds. Situated in Airth this fascinating pottery merged the need for mass production, to be financially viable, with the ability to produce ‘on trend’ pieces and highlight the artistic genius of its owner. As well as being business savvy Peter Gardiner, the owner of the pottery, was also a technically astute potter with an ability to produce glazes and colours that still amaze us today.

To help us understand and appreciate Gardner’s work we have commissioned artist Steph Liddle to respond to the collection and make her own work as an exploration of form and glazes inspired by Dunmore."

- www.falkirkleisureandculture.org/whats-on/dunmore..

The Callendar House kitchen:

I remember having freshly made mince pies in this beautiful space with my mum and my brother one childhood Christmas time.

And the ground floor gallery:

where you can currently see lots of my work. Read all about it and see all the images in my companion blog post here - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/12/artful-exhibition-callendar-house.html

Artful exhibition runs until 11th January

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Trains to Falkirk High are very frequent along the Edinburgh Glasgow line.

Check before your journey at - www.scotrail.co.uk

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Thank you for reading my Scotland By Rail blog. Spread the word and let me know about your own favourite railway days out.

Leo du Feu

ScotRail Community Rail Champion

December 2024

#ScotlandByRail #CommunityRailChampion on facebook, instagram, twitter

Artful exhibition, Callendar House

A companion to my blog post about a Scotland By Rail trip to Callendar Park and Callendar House in Falkirk.

I'm delighted to be part of Artful exhibition which is on in the ground floor gallery in Callendar House until 11th January 2025. I hope you'll be able to visit. 

Read this previous blog post and make a day of it 

- https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/12/scotland-by-rail-falkirk-high-to.html

The space I was offered in the gallery is large so I'm able to show one of my very large canvases which hardly ever get seen, as well as a selection of what I more usually consider my 'large' works. There is also a whole grid of my miniature wall works and a display cabinet of my miniatures on ceramic and my wood engravings.

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Here is the large wall including the giant painting,

flight of a space goblin

4.5x6ft

acrylic on canvas 

And the rest:

And a bit of the rest of the exhibition. It's a brilliant exciting mix of painting, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery.

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Here are images of all my works. Do get in touch if you wish to know titles, sizes, prices.

Larger works:

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Miniature watercolours, 5x8cm:

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Cabinet of curiosities:

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And finally, a selection of mounted unframed birdy works in the browser in Callendar House shop:

Phew.

Artful runs until 11th January 2025.

Get in touch if you wish to know more about any of my pieces.

Or better still - visit!

Follow my companion blog post here

- https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/12/scotland-by-rail-falkirk-high-to.html