Provincetown

White-line Printing

In 1915, a unique art form was founded by a group of artists in Provincetown, MA, who were studying the art of wood block printing. Artists, Bror Nordfelt, Ada Gilmore, Mildred McMillan, Ethel Mars and Maud Squire were practicing the process of Japanese Wood Block Printing.  Many hours were spent creating a block of wood for each color and etching out blank areas so only the lines were printed.

The Provincetown artists thought there was another way to do the printing process. They began to carve lines from just one block of wood and coloring the print with watercolor, eliminating duplicate blocks of wood for each color. The resulting print created a white line around the images so they called the works of art, white-line printing. Artists practice this creative technique today, exhibiting in many galleries across Cape Cod.

Our students have created white-line prints using Styrofoam instead of blocks of wood. More prints can be made using different colors changing the appearance of the picture each time. Look for the white lines in each print.