LINES IN TIME: WHITE LINE WOODCUT GROUP SHOW
Bill Evaul, Sherry Sherwood, Lorraine Kujawa, Darrell Smith, Kathryn Lee Smith, and Julie Gray
On Exhibit: through OCTOBER 12
Opening Reception: Friday, October 3 | 5:00–7:00 PM
Lines in Time: White Line Woodcut celebrates over a century of artistic innovation rooted in the unique white-line woodblock printing technique born in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Developed around 1915 by members of the Provincetown Printers—most notably B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Ada Gilmore, and Blanche Lazzell—this method revolutionized printmaking by using a single carved block with gouged lines separating hand-painted color areas, producing a luminous watercolor-like image bordered by the signature white lines. Influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e prints and European Modernism, the Provincetown Print distilled complex traditions into an accessible and distinctly American form, often capturing the Cape’s coastal life and spirit through bold shapes, flattened perspective, and intimate subject matter.
This group exhibition brings together contemporary artists to trace the lineage and evolution of the white-line print. From early masters like Lazzell and Maud Hunt Squire to present-day practitioners including Kathryn Lee Smith, the show highlights the enduring relevance and vitality of the technique. New works honor the tactile, meditative nature of white-line printing while pushing its boundaries through abstraction, expanded palettes, and narrative experimentation. Lines in Time invites viewers to explore how this Provincetown-born art form continues to evolve—bridging past and future, tradition and reinvention—with each carved line.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Darrell Smith: Darrell Smith learned white-line woodblock printing at the Provincetown Art Association Museum (PAAM). Kathryn Lee Smith (no relation) was his first teacher, and she learned the technique from her grandmother Ferol Sibley Warthen, who learned from Blanche Lazzell. He completed the Teaching Artist Development Program at PAAM in 2022. He regularly exhibits his work as a member of the American Color Print Society. Smith's work has been shown in juried exhibitions at PAAM, The Pontiac Creative Arts Center, and at Art Wellesley. In 2020, one of his prints was selected by the jury for the 50th annual Cherokee Trail of Tears Art Show held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In August 2022 he was featured in a show at Julie Heller Gallery East. His first solo show at Provincetown Commons was April 2023, with another solo show at the Wellesley Free Library in May 2024.
smithprovincetownprints.com
Julie Gray: Through my prints, I try to communicate the feeling of a place through the unique and historically rich medium of white-line woodcut printmaking. Whether it’s a specific landscape, building or a random cottage, my hope is that these prints allow the viewer to connect with their memories of Provincetown in some way. This method, originally created in Provincetown in 1914, allows me to break down a composition into tangible, discrete shapes and colors to develop the image. I am deeply indebted to Kathryn Lee Smith, granddaughter of Ferol Sibley Warthen, for her guidance in teaching me this traditional technique. The physicality of carving directly into the wood block resonates with me on several levels. Each cut and gouge from the wood contributes to the defining "white line" that frames and shapes the final image. This process is both deliberate and intuitive, a conversation between my vision and the inherent qualities of the wood itself. While I also work in oil painting and watercolor, I enjoy the direct, tactile nature of white-line prints. I strive to capture not just the visual elements of a scene, but its underlying mood and atmosphere. My prints are an attempt to create a sense of familiarity and connection for the viewer, inviting them to recall their own memories or experiences of the place.
Kathryn Smith: I have been making white line prints for my entire life, learning the method from my artist grandmother, Ferol Sibley Warthen, a student of Blanche Lazzell's, when I was four years old. Working in this tradition became my life's work. My prints draw heavily on the sense of a particular moment in time, whether that moment is conveyed as a representational image or an abstraction. The formal elements of the visual language give me the tools to transform the idea; the process of manipulating these elements to support the theme bring the idea into focus. The inherent warmth of the wood, the use of hand tools, the physicality of pulling the print, all are a significant part of the process which informs the final print.
@KLSprovincetownprints
kathrynleesmithwhitelineprints.com
Lorraine Kujawa: Reflections The multitude of life here in Provincetown feeds my work. My goal is to keep looking and reflecting on the interesting and the beautiful.
lkuj34@comcast.net
Sherry Sherwood: Focusing primarily on the white-line color woodcut (Provincetown Print) for the last forty years I have developed an advanced understanding of the medium and its history. By combining analytical cubism with the vibrant colors of Impressionism, I create an easily understood abstraction through light, energy, and motion. Drawing the viewer in through active and expressive compositions transporting them into a complex experience of a certain event. Within these lines and brush work, a sense of freedom emerges from a traditionally more restrictive woodblock printmaking process.
sherrysherwood.com
@Artist4Earth
