The UMass Amherst Libraries host Color Woodblock Prints, an Exhibition by Linda Mahoney ’79, from January 23 through April 28, 2017, in the Science & Engineering Library (SEL), Lederle Graduate Research Center Lowrise, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Linda Mahoney has been a painter for over 30 years. She lives in Northfield, Massachusetts, and was an art teacher at Stoneleigh-Burnham School for Girls in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from 1987 to 2016. In 2007, she took a workshop in Moku Hanga—Japanese watercolor woodblock printmaking—and fell in love with all parts of the process. It has become her primary medium. Mahoney graduated from UMass Amherst in 1979 with a B.F.A. in Painting and a minor in Art History. Her artworks have been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally through the Art in Embassies Program which promotes the cultural identity of America’s art and artists by borrowing original works of art by U.S. citizens for display in approximately 180 U.S. embassy residences worldwide. During the last five years she has been exhibiting her color woodblock prints in outdoor art shows throughout New England, and has received several awards for her prints. In June of 2016, she was the “Artist in Residence” at Acadia National Park in Maine. Moku Hanga consists of designing an image, carving several blocks for each print design, experimenting with colors while proof printing, refining the blocks and colors, using brushes to apply water-based paint mixed with rice paste to the paper and then applying pressure with a hand-held baren (a pad of twisted cord covered with paper, cloth, and bamboo leaves) in order to make the final print. “I paint numerous watercolors en plein air, during the warmer months, returning to favorite places each year. I favor the undisturbed landscape, usually nature preserves, state parks, wildlife sanctuaries, or undeveloped coastal areas,” says Mahoney. “I am particularly drawn to Downeast Maine; the Schoodic Peninsula, Steuben, Addison, and Lubec. Distinctive trees, crashing surf and rocks, bogs, boreal forests, marshes, and active skies are frequently my subjects.” Mahoney then studies these watercolors and selects the ones that best capture the spirit of place to use as designs for her color woodblock prints. The exhibition will include a display of her materials and process. To view the artist’s work, visit: lmahoneyprints.com