From fishing to etchings

“Northern Sand Dollar” (etching) by Matthew Smith, in the New Hampshire group show “The Artist Next Door,’’ at Two Villages Art Society, Contookook, N.H., through July 30.

Sand dollars are species of flat, burrowing sea urchins belonging to the order Clypeasteroida.

His Web site says:

“Matthew Smith is an inventor, a creator, a maker of things. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y.   Matthew became a commercial fishing captain and made innovative nets to catch haddock and halibut in the North Atlantic. He put together the best fishing-boat crews to deploy the gear he made. He followed his instincts to go to places on the Georges Bank where the fish were, but the other fishermen were not.

After leaving the fishing industry, Matthew built, by hand, a self-sustained log cabin on the shore of Quincy Pond in Nottingham, N.H. Here he started a small company -- Quincy Pond Print Works -- to help him create his prints, frame them to museum standards, and make them available to collectors in New England and across the country, shipped in packages he designed himself.

As an artist, he created a new way to make prints — copper block etching -- that combines the top features of intaglio etching and relief printing to best portray the incredible color, depth, and texture found in his work. And he ships each piece of art with a custom-made museum-quality frame.’’

The Nottingham Square Schoolhouse museum is one of the best-preserved mid-19th Century schoolhouses in New Hampshire.