Four + North Prints the Maine Outdoors onto Charming Home Goods

Pamela Fortin had been creating pen-and-ink drawings for years when a friend suggested printing her illustrations on tea towels. Always willing to learn a new creative skill, she began screen printing her nature-inspired designs, and after positive feedback from a showing at her local gallery, she got to work in her home studio and launched Four + North in 2015, formerly known as North Circle Studio.

Fortin, who grew up in Fairfield and lives there today with her family, loves to garden, cook, and take trips to her family’s camp or the coast. Along the way, she’ll often jot down inspiration in her notebook to use later in her designs. “I feel so fortunate to live in a state where almost everything can inspire an idea,” she says.

She expands her notebook sketches — of ferns, moose, canoes, chickadees, and more — into dynamic ink illustrations, which she then cleans up digitally. When her designs are finished, she burns them onto the screens used for printing, and then she uses eco-friendly, water-based ink to print her small batches of functional and beautiful home goods, which include tea towels, totes, produce bags, and napkins made of 100 percent natural, unbleached cotton.

Recently, Fortin’s been dabbling in colored inks and fabrics, which she dyes herself, and she’s introduced many new products for spring. “I’m always on the lookout for designs that make wonderful gifts,” she says, “as well as that are eco-friendly and can be used time and time again.”