peter lancaster | Fijian Dreamin’

Written by Miranda K. Metcalf | Published 23 oct 2019

This article is significant in a number of ways. One is that it marks the one year anniversary of pine|copper|lime. An undertaking which is the very definition of a passion project born out of my love for printmaking. My love, and well, a little bit of panic. In late 2017 I was informed by then-employer that after six years as the director of contemporary printmaking at his gallery, he’d be downsizing and neither I, nor my co-director could expect to have a job the following June. How many jobs are there in contemporary printmaking in the world, and how many of those are outside of teaching? I am going to go out on a limb and say between 50 and zero. 

I studied printmaking during my master’s in art history and loved every minute of it, making me, and I don't know if this is an exaggeration to say, one of the few people working within the contemporary printmaking global community strictly as a curator, writer, and advocate without a personal printmaking practice. I’ve dabbled of course, but always, when looking over my attempts, come back to the apt phrase: stay in your lane.  This is when I first had the idea for PCL. I wanted a place where our close knit, but geographically divided community could gather, share our stories and learn from one another - our successes as well as our filled in tusche washes.

The reception of PCL in the first year has been tremendous, I am humbled and delighted to see the amount of people who care about this project. From those of you showing your support through Patreon, to my friends and family who have endured countless hours of real time, out loud, workshopping and emotional labor listening to me go on about it. I am endlessly grateful that I live in a time where I can build something like this from my ancient, quivering laptop in Sydney, Australia, and reach every corner of the printmaking world with available internet connects. Which brings me to the second reason why my episode with Peter Lancaster is so significant. He is the first Australian I have had on the podcast despite having been in Australia for over a year now, and it is quite a way to start. Lancaster is one of the most respected and accomplished collaborative printers down under, and he has recently pulled up stakes and returned to his home of Fiji to open an incredible print workshop and residency. To hear him describe it - the setting, the palm trees, the house, the beach - it is hard not to start wiping the drool with one hand while googling plane tickets with the other. While I plan to dedicate plenty of ink to his most recent endeavor, let’s first see how he got there.

Lancaster always had a strong interest in drawing. He drew nonstop growing up, and even studied the techniques and images of the old masters. So when it came time to apply for college he was certain he would get into the drawing course to which he had applied at the University of Melbourne. He was, however, not admitted. It was then that someone suggested to him that he try printmaking, if he enjoyed drawing as much as he did this would give him a chance to exercise that interest. Lancaster started to hang around the print studio at the university and did a bit of etching, but it was when he first saw someone drawing on a “bloody big rock” that he knew he’d found his calling. He was hooked - and like the rest of us - he never looked back.

Like many lithographers - and one could argue that perhaps it is a necessary if not sufficient quality to be a lithographer - Lancaster enjoyed the challenges of all things lithography. When something doesn’t go the way it should, there are innumerable possibilities. In lithography one is dealing with mercurial chemistry, the temperature and humidity of the day, or even where the sun comes in through the window. All of that could affect how the printing went. Lancaster eventually found his way to the Tamarind Book of Lithography, which he lovingly refers to as the bible during our interview, and admits that he probably highlighted the book from cover to cover before he was done with it while mastering the craft.

When he learned about the Tamarind course he knew he had to attend. He got his references, applied, packed up and moved from Melbourne to Albuquerque to attend their printer trainer program. At the time, what is now a year long course was condensed into four and a half months, “It was like military school,” he recalls. From that first year of students, then as now, only two people are selected to go on to the second. In the second year, students work in the Tamarind editioning studio alongside the master printer creating lithographs with incredible artists from around the world. Tamarind has produced editions with George Miyasaki, Jim Dine, Judy Chicago, Nick Cave and Kiki Smith to name a few. Yet, Lancaster didn’t even apply for the second year. He was too keen to get to Melbourne are start his own print shop.

Once he was back in Australia, he worked for a year as the technician at the University of Melbourne before he threw it all in to focus on his own publishing shop. “People thought I was crazy, it was a regular salary,” he says, “but I was driven to start my own print shop.”

So he did, and in the good company of Bill Gates and Walt Disney, did so in his folks’ garage. It was pretty “make do” until one day in 1989 he finally got his 34 x 60 inch Takach press in the mail. Everything he was making at the time from lecturing was going into that shop. His day job at the university not only helped make ends meet in the early years, it also provided access to interesting artists coming in to visit the institution, many of whom he could invite back to his studio to produce work. It all worked out well and there was a market for what he was doing. “Prints were selling well at the time. People didn’t necessarily even understand the process behind it, they just loved the work. You’d go to an exhibition and see many prints up from the exhibition artist, and many of them would be sold. It was a good feeling to make an edition that sold out,” Lancaster says of the time. He would go to an exhibition anywhere in Melbourne, and if he liked the work he’d send a letter to the gallery inviting the artist to make lithographs with him. Most of the time he would get a response. Even if they didn’t really understand the process, they would often make good work. Lancaster quotes Ken Tyler in saying, “A great artist will make great prints.”

After twenty-eight years in Melbourne, Lancaster started to have thoughts about returning to Fiji. He had grown up and lived there until the age of twelve. He still speaks of his childhood in Fiji with delight. He tells me about “kite season”, something I had never heard of. In kite season all the children make their own flying contraptions out of bamboo and cotton and have epic sky battles trying to take down the other’s creations. Sometimes kids would apply crushed glass mixed with rice glue to the cotton and attempt to cut the opponent’s cotton. They were delicate in construction, and when they inevitably came down kids would chase after where they landed. Listening to Lancaster describe this, it is easy to see why his heart never left.

Lancaster and his wife eventually bought an eight bedroom house in Fiji and relocated presses and related studio equipment. Their new home is located in Malaqereqere, which he tells me very appropriately translates to “rock”. They have now spent the last two and half years renovating. From the front of the house a visitor can see the ocean, from behind, it looks up into the hills. The building sits on an acre of well-established trees, many of which bare fruit that one can just reach up and pull right off. There are coconut trees everywhere, and almost all of the cooking is done with fish from the sea just minutes away and squeezing the juice from coconuts. Guests eat well right off the land. There are mongoose in the jungle, which means there are no snakes, but there are cane toads which come out in the evening. One must be careful not to tread on them once the sun goes down. And it goes down quick, Fiji is on the equator, so there are no long drawn out twilights like you get in Melbourne. “You’ve got to drink your gin and tonic, pretty quick,” Lancaster advises.  

There is a purpose-built studio on the property which is fully operational and to which he is adding as resources allow. The climate is humid, of course, but that actually helps the lithography process. None of the problem of your stone suddenly drying out on you, like it would happen in the high deserts of New Mexico where Lancaster studied at Tamarind. But don’t worry the studio is air conditioned, plus there are plenty of places to take sketching breaks around the property. He has a large plate backer on the press, on which he can print plate lithographs. Big stones (56 x 76), medium stones, and quite a few small stones for teaching classes. He has more that he’s slowly bringing over from Melbourne as well. He also has as photo exposure unit with a vacuum frame.

The studio is built with the community in mind, and for an artist to be able to take their family with them. The house itself can hold quite a few people, and the area allows for the family to spend the day out and about before meeting back up at night with whoever has been slaving away in the studio. There is a little beach a five minute walk from the house, but just twenty minutes down the road you’ll find a find the stunning Natadola beach, with snorkelling, massage, and horseback riding. 

As Lancaster tells me all of this I have a hard time not opening another browser window to start searching flights immediately - Fiji Airlines now flies direct from LA, by the way - and we both agree how amazing it is to have opportunities like this around the world. We are truly a global print community. “You show up anywhere in the world and you’ve got people,” he says. Talking to Lancaster is like talking to an old friend, I liked him instantly, and felt that we could easily spend a day in the studio, and a night on the porch with a G&T together like old friends. Printmakers are amazing people, the connections that you make, the opportunities that you pursue are what gives your life meaning. And Lancaster is truly serving up something special. Book your tickets. I’ll see you there. May, June, July, and August are all fantastic times to visit.