It is with the greatest honor that we present a collection of etchings from the studio of Mary Margaret Sweeney, on view from March 7th through April 7th at The Kittery Art Association.

“Mary Margaret Sweeney uses the medium of etching in its best traditional manner. Proficient and sophisticated in technique, her prints have the poise and polish of the Old Masters or the Nineteenth Century Etching Revivalists. Indeed the artist confesses the influence of the prints of Childe Hassam. Like this 19th Century American Impressionist, Sweeney is continually inspired by the New England Landscape. With her eyes attuned to the linear vocabulary of etching she finds patterns everywhere in rocks, trees and uneven horizons. While many of her prints depict figures, still lifes, and interiors, she always returns to her favorite forested landscapes." - David Acton, Working Proof

Sweeney attended The Chicago Art Institute majoring in advertising and design, but only found printmaking when she returned to formal art training after raising her children. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1980. In her three-decade career as a printmaker, she has been involved with the Experimental Etching Studio in Boston, The Boston Printmakers, The Society of American Graphic Artists in New York, The New Hampshire Art Association and The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are in the permanent collections of the New Hampshire Commission on the Arts, Boston Public Library, Worcester Art Museum, The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, and Framingham State College.

For many years Mary Margaret Sweeney worked from her Government Street studio, in the heart of Kittery Foreside. Many of her prints are Traditional Intaglio Printmaking, and her more recent works are Solar Plate Etchings which give the image a softer feel. The artist writes about her Traditional Intaglio process: “A printmaker draws through ground on a metal plate. The plate is immersed in an acid bath. Ink is applied to the plate and the excess is wiped away, leaving ink in the etched grooves. Dampened paper is laid on the plate and the plate and paper are run through a printing press. Note that the printed image appears in reverse.” To achieve her color prints the artist applies pigments to each print by hand, using colored pencils.

This exhibition and sale of Mary Margaret Sweeney’s etchings is made possible by Ali Goodwin, and with the generosity of the artist's family.