Works by printmaker Jan Arabas of Bristol Mills will be on display at the Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop in downtown Damariscotta from Friday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 28. 

The display is part of the shop’s Book Shop Artists series. Several local artists are members of the shop’s all-volunteer staff. This new series gives them an opportunity to display and sell their work at the shop.

Arabas will show new, small prints of sea birds she has seen on the coast of Maine. All works will be for sale, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit Skidompha Public Library.

Arabas uses printing inks and paper and an etching press to make her artwork. She was trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and worked for many years in professional collaborative printmaking studios. She also taught printmaking and drawing in the community college system in Massachusetts for 30 years. 

Her work appears in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Boston Public Library, and many other regional museums, university art collections, and in private collections. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Printmaking. Her work has been in shows in Japan, Cuba, South Africa, Montreal, and across the USA.   Some of her work can be seen on her website, janarabas.com. 

She is a member of Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset and has some works in its current show, Made in Maine. She began volunteering at the Skidompha Book Shop in 2024.

The shop, located at 17 Backstreet Landing, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Arabas plans to be there on Friday and Sunday between noon and 2 p.m.; Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. 

Arabas says that the process she uses "is very experimental, and a bit hard to control, so the results can be surprising and painterly. There are frequent accidental effects that are quite lovely.”

The Secondhand Book Shop is a major source of funding for Skidompha Public Library. All items are donated, all staff members are volunteers, and every purchase helps to support the library’s collections and programs. Donations are accepted whenever the shop is open.

For more information, please visit skidomphabookshop.org or phone 207-563-7807 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.