While only 22, Matthew Smith became a captain of an 80-foot trawler named the "Charlotte G" and spent a significant time fishing the Georges Banks off the New England coast, just before it was subjected to over-fishing by the world's commercial fleets.

"At the time I was fishing the Georges Banks," Smith said, "it was one of the last great wild places on earth-where nature was working on all eight cylinders."

However, as Smith observed the ongoing depletion of the worlds' marine life population, he realized that, as a successful commercial fisherman, "I was adding to the problem." Because he loved the wildness of the sea, he came to the conclusion in his early 30s that he could no longer continue to captain the Charlotte G.

Eighteen years ago, he moved to Nottingham and built, by hand, a cabin on Quincy Pond, a heavily forested "swamp" that includes some of the earth's oldest hardwood trees, some over 700 years old. The abundant wildlife surrounding Quincy Pond inspires Smith with its "natural glow of life," the same sense of wildness that he found on the Georges Banks, and provides the perfect setting for his second career as a professional artist and printmaker.

Smith's almost abstract representations of sea life shimmer with his use of iridescent inks. His prints reflect his abiding passion for the ocean's abundance of species and his knowledge of its unique environment.

Smith still has a hard time calling himself an artist, though. "I'm not like most artists who went to art school," he says. "Even to this point I feel like a boat captain doing what he does best," to possess a supreme amount of knowledge about sea and shore life, which he now shares with the public and his collectors.

Conventional wisdom would assume that the qualities needed to be a successful artist are different from that of a commercial fisherman. Not true, explains Smith, for there are certain skills he has used as both a sea captain and an artist. "As a fisherman, I worked a lot with my nets," said Smith, "I like to work with my hands."

Also, Smith noted, a fisherman has to be constantly aware of what is going on around him, both seen and unseen. As a captain, "I had to be aware of the currents underneath my boat and of the weather above. The same," he explains, "holds true for print-making," for the artist must be fully mindful of this very complicated, mostly unseen and sometimes highly volatile process.

Smith has mastered his own very unique method of copper-block etching, building multiple surfaces on an etched copper plate using a variety of dry and oily inks. This results in a plate that resembles "a topographical plate with highs and lows" and creates an image with significant depth and blended colors.

The public will be able to view a wide variety of Smith's limited edition copper block etchings through March at N.W. Barrett Gallery, 53 Market St., Portsmouth. A reception for Smith will be held on Friday, March 11, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. as part of Art 'Round Town. For more information, call the Barrett Gallery at 603-431-4262.