Cycling up the Hill with my Dad, an exhibition of textiles by Claire Heminsley and ceramics by David Heminsley, who died earlier this year, has opened in St Andrews.

The exhibition, presented by Fife Contemporary Art and Craft, celebrates and makes links between the careers of two successful Scottish based makers who also happen to be father and daughter – David and Claire Heminsley.

While working in very different media they have shared similar stimulation for their work. Teaching has provided the opportunity for exchanges with other artists and for both of them drawing has been key to their artistic development and in planning their work. Sketchbooks and other materials in the show will give an insight into their creative processes.

Claire Heminsley is a Fife based textile artist. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and exhibits widely as well as working to commission. Her work incorporates a range of cloth, stitching, drawing and digital printing. Her work embodies a strong sense of drawing and often has elements of illustration and gentle humour. 

For this exhibition she was free to create a new body of work which has allowed her to explore the development of her practice. Inspiration for the work has come, as in earlier pieces, from simple domestic references but she has also explored the creative life of her father. She has used his drawing, tools, his inspiration and her memories of him.

When he died David Heminsley was in the midst of creating a series of new bowl forms incorporating poetry by Alice Mitchell, some of which are in the exhibition. It also includes a selection of earlier pieces by him to reflect his range of precisely made domestic and inventive sculptural work.

David Heminsley came to ceramics after studying Drawing and Painting at Birmingham College of Art and Design. From 1955-72 he was Senior Lecturer and then Head of the School of Ceramics at what is now the University of Ulster. He came to Fife to set up a workshop at Balbirnie Craft Centre, Markinch in 1972 and was a founder member of the Scottish Potters Association in 1974. Latterly he was based in a workshop he had set up in Edinburgh.

An accompanying publication will contain commissioned writing by Carol Jones and Anne Lightwood about the two artists and set their work in a wider context.

The exhibition is on at St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife tel: 01334 412690 from 17 November 2007 to 20 January 2008.  Open Monday to Friday 10.30am to 4pm and weekends 12.30 to 5pm. Admission free.