MATTAPOISETT – Mattapoisett resident, Peter Michael Martin, will be exhibiting a number of White-Line woodblock prints at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library from Sept. 15 to Oct. 14.

Most of these works were created within the past two years. Some prints will be from his two most recent series completed during the Covid lockdown, “The Simple Life” and “Abstract Images.”

White-Line woodblock printing is a print method which does not require a printing press or toxic inks and the prints are cut on a single woodblock. The colors, applied with a brush, are watercolors and a spoon is used to transfer the image onto paper. The method is attributed to B.J.O. Nordfelt in Provincetown.

Martin received a BS in Special Education and Minor in Art and a MEd at Bridgewater State University. He was a Special Education teacher for 25 years with the Dennis-Yarmouth Public Schools and 10 years at Old Rochester Regional High.

Martin says that, “while always an artist within, I had a life as a teacher for 35 years, retiring in 2009, the year when I began being an artist full time. I believe that imagery is within me all the time. We all gather visual images about places we are going, people we will meet, and stories that we read or hear. With my art I hope to present the viewer with the opportunity to make some of their own personal connections.”

Martin was one of five artists from the U.S. to participate in the Ulsan International Woodcut Print Art Festival this summer in Korea. His work of iPhone images titled “Call Me Ahab” was on exhibit in Paris this past June. The exhibition was hosted by Universite Paris Cite, and Sorbonne Nouvelle and sponsored by the 13th International Melville Society Conference.