Waterfront on woodcuts

“Sea Fox on an Evening Tide’’ (reduction woodcut), by Don Gorvett , in his show “Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts," April 2 to Sept. 12, 2021, at the Portsmouth Historical Society's Academy Galleries, in Portsmouth, N.H. (This exhibit coincides the galleries show "Twilight of American Impressionism: Alice Ruggles Sohier and Frederick A. Bosley.")

Mr. Gorvett, born in Boston in 1949, is a contemporary artist and master printmaker. His immediate surroundings, the seaside, and its harbors are fundamental to his work. He’s influenced by a romantic passion for history, drama and music. He’s well known for his reduction woodcuts that record maritime subjects from Boston, Gloucester, Portsmouth and and Ogunquit, Maine.

His skills as a draftsman and understanding of printmaking are paramount features of his bold graphic style. By virtue of the reduction woodcut method, he arrives at a degree of abstract imagery and liberation from literal realism.