BELFAST, Maine — Printmakers at Local Color Gallery in Belfast participated in Print Day in May on Saturday.
On this annual, global celebration of printmaking, printmakers around the world make prints and share their experiences with others.
Artists at Local Color Gallery demonstrated different ways they make their prints including white-line woodcutting, solar plate etching, copper plate etching, and linoleum block printmaking.
Printmaker Leslie Moore told NEWS CENTER Maine, Print Day in May is an opportunity for artists like herself to show folks unique art styles that are typically hard to explain.
"People don’t really understand what printmaking is about," Moore said. "They can imagine a painter painting a painting, but they really don’t know the mechanics of printmaking. I thought it would be good to share with the community what we do and how we do it."
"I do solar plate printmaking and display them here at the gallery," artist Sandi Cirillo said. "I am explaining the entire process to people from the original picture a person would take all the way up to the etching process itself."
Cirillo said she took a solar plate etching class about seven years ago and has been hooked on the art ever since.
"I've been taking more classes and refining that whole process that I learned and really enjoy," Cirillo said. "Most people don't know what solar plate etching is, and what's nice about having events like these is that I get to explain to people what the whole process is."