If you re lucky, the friends you make at 18 remain friends for a lifetime. This has certainly been the case for two gauche young art students who met on their first day at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in 1976. From the moment Lex McFadyen, who grew up in the Ayrshire village of Symington, and Madeleine Hand, a townie from Motherwell, introduced themselves, their friendship grew. The pair went on to share a studio, live in the same Glasgow flat, get to know each other s family and partners and to support, critique and encourage each other throughout their respective careers. Now, as the artists prepare to exhibit together for the first time at the Glasgow Gallery in Glasgow s city centre, McFadyen recalls how he and Hand were placed by their tutor, painter Barry Atherton, in the same studio corner of premises that GSA then owned on Blythswood Square.