FOR 40 years a group of artists have been crafting colourful creations in a workshop tucked away in a side street off Cowley Road.

In that time much has changed, but the Oxford Printmakers’ Co-operative workshop remains a vibrant place – used and run by more than a hundred members.

Most of them are fine arts graduates and professional artists based in Oxfordshire, making for an eclectic mix of styles and subjects.

To celebrate the milestone, a special exhibition will showcase this diverse work from members past and present at SJE Arts in Iffley Road.

One of the founder members involved in setting up the co-operative in the 1970s, Helen Ganly, is still an active member and is taking part in the exhibition and said the melting pot of ideas and approaches makes the workshop 'like a big kitchen'.

She said: “Printmaking embraces so many different individual aesthetics. Members are interested in sharing techniques and collaborative working.”

More than 200 pieces from screenprints to etchings to monoprints, collagraphs, lino and litho-prints, wood-cuts and engravings will be on display.

Contributions from well-known artists include Royal Academy member Anne Desmet who made wood-engravings of the Olympic Stadium in 2012 and officially opened the exhibition on Saturday.

The Tyndale Road workshop and co-operative has grown throughout the decades – from the initial DIY conversion, with Ms Ganly and other young mums digging up the original wooden floor to put down concrete, to international exchanges, the publication of The Printmakers’ Platter recipe book in 2014 and a collaboration with Oxford University’s Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in 2016.

As well as this the workshop’s own Wall Gallery hosts a range of in-house exhibitions throughout the year.

A popular offer are the regular courses run by experienced members which are open to anyone keen to try their hand at one of the many printmaking processes: relief, etching, mono printing, screen printing, calligraphy and stone lithography.

The show entitled ‘celebrating 40 years’ is on display until June 24.