Dreamscapes of Maine | Open Studio

Deep inside, many of us harbor a secret vision of coastal Maine. A place where waterways drift off toward the horizon, edged with pointed firs, and bulging rocks drape down toward the sea. Where wind, water, and weather collude to create a setting that lives between drama and dream.

That vision stares out from the black faces of sheep, clustered in a foggy landscape. Tranquil seabirds contemplate a flat sea. A dark scrim of evergreens shields the shimmering water beyond. This is that Maine, captured in the collagraphs that hang in printmaker Kathleen Buchanan’s Rockport studio.

In fact, the studio itself is a little like a dream. Just off the entryway to her home, it occupies the space that was formerly a dining room, in full view of everything. The large, contemporary house, open and airy, gleaming with wood, swirls around a central staircase—in effect, feeling like a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

“It’s worked better than anticipated,” Buchanan says with a quiet smile. “This room’s pretty front and center.”

The house is silent for the moment. Her sons, Declan, 12, and Teague, 9, are in school. Perfect conditions for artistic contemplation and firing up the massive printing press that dominates the former eating area. “‘Collagraph’ comes from ‘collage,’” Buchanan explains. “The quick version is that I start with a backing panel of Masonite, build a collage with shapes of paper to delineate the design, and then paint over it with acrylics to add texture and detail.”

For images with multiple colors, Buchanan will make a plate for each hue. The “key” plate contains the main elements; other plates flesh out the image. Then, inking each plate, she prints progressively, working from light to dark, on Italian printmaking paper.

To demonstrate, Buchanan lays a plate on the press, dampens the paper, places a felt blanket on top of the paper, and presses it through. The effect as she peels away the felt is instantaneous. Sheep stare up from the paper. “It’s magical,” she nods. “When you run an image through the press, suddenly it has weight and gravitas. It’s authoritative.”

These quiet, contemplative images spring from a combination of photos, field sketches, and “a healthy dose of imagination.” She credits her undergraduate education at Tufts and subsequent work as a biologist for helping cultivate the skills of observation, although all along she’d taken studio art classes. “I knew that art felt necessary on some level,” she says. “I always identified myself as a creative person, but I saw myself becoming a biologist.”

That changed when the Springfield, Massachusetts, native was completing her graduate degree in wildlife biology at the University of Alaska. “I got to the place where students often get—I started bogging down. My advisor told me to de-stress, and pick something I’d enjoy. I signed up for printmaking. And realized, Uh-oh, I think this is what I want to be doing.”

When her husband, Lance, got that most-Maine-of-all jobs—as a boatbuilder at Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding—the New England native finally came home. She bought a press and set it up in Boothbay Harbor, then moved it to Thomaston when the couple settled there. For a brief time, she even relocated the press outside the house, seeking serenity. “I found a little studio—I was there six months,” she says ruefully. “But I missed everyone.” When the family moved into their Rockport home in 2016, the 400-pound press came home, too. And stayed. “My husband says I’ve officially used up the press moves!”

Back in the rhythm of family life, Buchanan escapes to “Studio B,” a small room at the back of the house, when she needs to. There she dreams up images inspired by the beauty and serenity of coastal Maine. “There’s so much to play with—strong vertical trees, the horizon, rocks—it’s a wonderland for finding interesting images,” she says. “And this medium lets me express what I want to express. I love the process of building the plates—there’s so much subtlety and texture and softness to the images.”

It’s all a beautiful contrast to the lively home-work center, a life in balance. In the end, she says, “Hanging out and printing in the hubbub of life feels best to me.”

Handmade prints: $200–$1,000 (unframed); $300–$1,300 (framed). For more information, call 207-596-3449 or go to greysealpress.com.