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Graphic Studio Dublin celebrates 50th with Glór exhibition

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A RANGE of top-class printwork is currently on display at Glór, Ennis to celebrate with Graphic Studio Dublin their 50th anniversary.
Graphic Studio Dublin was established in 1960 to teach traditional printmaking skills, (then unavailable in Irish art colleges) and to provide studios and technical assistance to artists to make fine art prints. They currently have 67 members and this exhibition has a selection of work from some of these artists, including Meadhbh Arthurs, Jean Bardon, Gerard Cox, Louise Farrelly, Paul Fitters, Niamh Flanagan, Nickie Hayden, Stephen Lawlor, Robert Russell and Siobhán Hyde.
“Apart from a period in the 18th century when Dublin became known as a centre for the manufacture of mezzotints, there has been little tradition of printmaking in Ireland. In 1960 Patrick Hickey, Leslie MacWeeney, Liam Miller, Elizabeth Rivers and Anne Yeats founded the Graphic Studio Dublin to teach traditional printmaking skills and to provide studios and technical assistance to artists to make fine art prints. It was opened in a small basement in Upper Mount Street. In 1983, the studio workshop moved to a much larger premises in the Docklands at Green Street East. The studios moved once again in 2007 to a converted granary building on Dublin’s North Circular Road,” a spokeswoman for the studio said.
The workshop has facilities for etching, lithography and woodblock printmaking. Since the studio’s beginnings in 1960, the awareness of printmaking has grown in Ireland, as has its importance as an artistic media through studio and gallery initiatives such as education and travelling exhibitions.
All of the pieces on display in Glór are original prints made in the Distillery House Studio and they showcase the variety of techniques, both traditional and contemporary, that are in use there. Jean Bardon’s Peonie Rose with Gold Leaf and Dark Iris with Gold Leaf showcases the high quality of prints that are produced in Graphic Studio Dublin. These beautiful traditional colour etchings embellished with gold leaf represent some of the best botanical fine art prints in Ireland.
The prints of Stephen Lawlor, Robert Russell, Michael Timmins and Nickie Hayden in this show display the usual level of expertise and beauty that people now expect from these well-known Irish printmakers.
The exhibition began last month and will run until Saturday, August 28. All prints are for sale. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

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