RUMFORD – Gemma Morrill-Dreher gets many of her ideas from the landscape, driving in her car or watching television.

On Friday, she was demonstrating the art of print-making using gelatin, and her creation, an abstract advocating peace in families, was inspired by a news broadcast a couple of days earlier.

“I saw a little boy building a coffin for another little boy, and I thought, this should not be happening,” she said.

Morrill-Dreher used paint, paper, feathers and other objects to create as a dozen or so people looked on at the opening reception for a new exhibit at Pennacook Art Center, which is an art and fine crafts gallery on Congress Street.

“Peace starts in the home, then goes out into the country, then to other countries,” she said.

An artist for decades, Morrill-Dreher has been teaching young students at Meroby Elementary School for 20 years, and frequently offers classes for adults. Next week, she offers insights and expertise on gelatin print-making at Scrappers Domaine.

Morrill-Dreher works in all sorts of media, from watercolor and acrylics to oils, collages and prints. She particularly likes gelatin print-making because of the transparency and shapes.

“You can mix a lot of images together,” she said.

Betsy Bell, manager of the gallery, said she tries to have a demonstration each month along with a new exhibit opening.

This month, the gallery features works by some of the cooperative’s 23 members, created during the summer months.

A print shows Peak’s Island, a watercolor zeroes in on a flashy sunflower, an acrylic depicts the local paper mill at sunset, and another work shows a clump of lady slippers.

The recent works will be on display throughout August.

On Sept. 9, the date of the next change of exhibit, a celebration of an office of the River Valley Arts Council moving into the center will be held.

The council recently received a $4,000 Maine Community Foundation Grant that will help with the purchase of office equipment, and other needs, Bell said.

“This will be a clearinghouse for the arts” in the area, said Bell of the council’s coming move into center.

Another art, poetry, will be celebrated later this month when Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl of Portland will read at the center on Aug. 20.

The Pennacook Art Center is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon until 5 p.m.