“I’ve had a hard time separating my art from Maine,” Blue laughs, “and I’ve been working at this for upwards of 30 years.” A well-known Portland-based printmaker and native of Mount Desert Island, Blue Butterfield isn’t kidding. Her work has become synonymous with Maine landscapes, her greeting cards and yearly calendars legendary. “Each piece is a site of real emotional depth for me,” she explains. “So many pieces are truly a moment in my life, a snapshot. I think to myself: I want to remember this.”
And remember it we do. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a local or visitor alike who hasn’t found themselves lost in her intricately wrought depictions while in the check-out line of an independent bookstore, market, or cafe. Yet like the Maine landscape itself her imagery is anything but commonplace. The attention and depth Blue brings to a single image allows us to sink into her memories and meet them with our own. To feel the warmth of the sun’s final rays across a still lake from some high perch, or the smell of a marsh wrought with crimson, russet, goldenrod. Shocks of red berries tell of fall walks, purple mountains of transcendent quiet moments spent in awe of nature’s magic. Her eye and hand seem to capture with otherworldly sensitivity the feeling of Maine. Rustic, yet complex. Alive for all the senses.
True to form, Blue’s process is just as dynamic as the images she creates. Straddling the line between art and craft, she likes to work with her hands. There’s a ruggedness to carving wood and a delicacy to her style—perhaps a tribute to island upbringing where life is simple yet layered with its own challenges and gifts. Still, Mainers are nothing if not practical at heart and Blue is no different. She creates using a process called reduction woodblock printmaking, “discovered by Picasso in the 50s” and inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. “I have a frugal Mainer’s sensibility,” she admits. “This lets me work with color without requiring many blocks of wood.” With elegant economy each image uses only a single one, which she carefully carves away, bit by bit, layering single colors onto the print while the surface of the woodblock slowly disappears. This process is deceivingly simple yet time-consuming. Blue might work on a single image for up to 50 hours, applying upwards of 20 unique layers of ink to create the intricately vibrant, layered look she’s known for. “I can do that because I’m so committed to the image. I just keep looking,” she explains. It’s a mindful act: “All you have to think about is what’s right in front of you. To just… be present.”
The meditative nature of Blue’s work translates for her audience, too—each print commands a long-view, and the iconic subject matter gives her work an utterly timeless quality. Her prints sit in permanent collections across New England but lucky for us its accessible too—something that matters to Blue: “I want this work to be for everyone.” You can find wildly evocative yet reasonably priced fine art prints, cards, yearly calendars, and even an illustrated memoir—Maine, A Love Story—on her website: bluebutterfield.com. Whether you bring some of her magic into your own home or send it to a loved one in a card, all of Blue’s prints promise years of gazing and remembering, again and again, that specific feeling of moments lived here in Maine. ▪
