Jenkins discusses the process of printmaking on May 4 and the current Senior Exhibition on May 11. Kim will talk about artist Marsden Hartley on May 18. All talks are open to the public and will be held in the upper level of the Bates Museum of Art, Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. For more information, please call 207-786-6158.

Jenkins’ first talk seeks to illuminate the often-mysterious mediums of silkscreen and lithography. Focusing on a small group of works from the collection and using a PowerPoint presentation, the talk will detail the processes of each medium step by step. The goal is to enable viewers to better to visualize the evolution of a work, and better appreciate the amount of work put into making prints.

Jenkins will next focus on a tour of the Senior Exhibition. The talk includes information on the yearlong thesis process required of art majors, an overview of the organization and installation of the show, and insights into Jenkins’ and her co-exhibitors’ art.

Finally, Kim will talk about artist Marsden Hartley, based on research she conducted during a museum internship. Born in Lewiston, Hartley is recognized as one of America’s greatest modernist painters. Kim will explore Hartley’s wanderings and his unique vision that emerged from his relationship with nature and human interactions.

The public is invited to attend Abeles’ talk and view the exhibit free of charge. Regular museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday 1 5 p.m. Guided tours for schools and other groups are welcome. Call 207-786 6158 for more information.

“Abeles is a magnificent artist whose prints are highly regarded for their extremely refined figure drawing and emotionally charged narratives and portraits,” said Genetta McLean, director of the Bates College Museum of Art and curator of the exhibition. “The exhibition celebrates Abeles’ establishment of the Bates College Museum of Art as a repository of his print archives. This is an extraordinary gift, which has provided our community with an important legacy of American printmaking.”

Abeles’ achievements in printmaking have been formally acknowledged as early as 1965 when he received an Arts and Letters Award and grant from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters for “etchings that pierce the comforting screen and reveal man in all his naked helplessness.” Abeles taught at the University of New Hampshire from 1970 to 1987 and now serves as professor emeritus of art. He also teaches painting at the Art Students League in New York City.

Abeles’ work is in many distinguished museums and collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Boston Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He also has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Boston Public Library in 1993. His work continues to receive honorary distinctions, including election to the National Academy of Design in 1990.

Visitors to the Bates exhibition will see Abeles’ finest prints, including a portfolio of etchings and drypoints called “Toward the End,” the artist’s poignant farewell to dying loved ones. His award-winning color lithograph “Day Lily” will be shown, as well as the major print “The Entrance,” a full-length figure standing in a doorway, which received the Leo Meissner Prize for intaglio in 1983.

Van Vliet is a distinguished recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and, as the owner and founder of the Janus Press, is widely known as a leading force in the production of artists’ books. This exhibition, curated by Genetta McLean, director of the Bates College Museum of Art, is drawn extensively from the Bates College Museum of Art’s collection and provides the first opportunity to see a retrospective survey of Van Vliet’s black and white landscape prints.

Throughout her career, Van Vliet has been fascinated by landscapes shaped by powerful geological forces that feature major rock formations. She particularly favors regions in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where boulders stand isolated against the sky.

“I am attracted to places where the land and rocks are bare either because of extreme dryness or because they are coastal,” Van Vliet said. “In New Zealand the beaches have unusual formations because it is a complex young land geologically with active volcanoes and plates sliding in opposite directions.”

Places closer to home are also represented in a new body of work– six lithographs that convey the silent eeriness of the area around Van Vliet’s home near Wheeler Mountain in northern Vermont.

Van Vliet was born in Ottawa, Canada, and was influenced by early 20th century Canadian landscape painters called the Group of Seven.

“As schoolchildren,” Van Vliet recalls, “we were very aware of these painters, so it meant that one could live in the wilds and also be an artist. I think that was very important; that art could be made in Canada in the 20th century and wasn’t just something European and historical.”

In Black and White: Landscape Prints by Claire Van Vliet will be on display from Jan. 15 through March 19 and is funded by the Richard Florsheim Art Fund and Champion Glass, Lewiston, Maine.

Regular hours at the Bates College Museum of Art are Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Guided tours for schools and other groups are welcome. Call 207-786-6158 for more information.