Don Gorvett produces his powerful reduction prints on a large French Tools etching press. He is a graduate of the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and a board member of the Boston Printmakers.

The New England Coast and the sea are fundamental to the artist's creations, which are also influenced by a romantic passion for history, drama and music. His considerable skills as a draughtsman and his thorough understanding of the medium of print are prominent features of his bold, graphic style.

Mr. Gorvett has exhibited with the Charlotte Printmakers of North Carolina, and was invited by the Fitchburg Art Museum to participate in the New England Impressionists exhibit which traveled to West Germany. His works may be found in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, the Cape Ann  Historical Museum, the Duxbury Art Complex, and numerous corporate and private collections.

Multi-color reduction woodcut is a process whereby all of the colors are printed from a single plank of wood. The "edition" or number of prints must be determined beforehand, since the overlay or preservation of prior colors will be achieved by the gradual destruction of the block. One cannot retreat during the process. The result is that the finished print canno9t be reproduced in kind beyond the originally determined number of prints.

Throughout the cutting and printing method described above, the woodblock slowly loses its surface and one gradually works in smaller area for each new color. The result is a buildup of velvety-thick textures and tones. Gradually, darker colors are applied at the end. By this time, much of the woodblock has been removed; peaks, plateaus, and drawing lines are all that remain of the original surface.

This medium requires a very strict sense of discipline. It also requires direct improvisation. Strength of concept is essential. The risk is great, for at any stage of the process success can be wiped out. Up to three or four months of steady work is needed for a large woodcut.

About the subject of the woodcut, Joseph Garland writes in his book, Gloucester on the Wind, "Buried today, Vincent Cove was bursting one hundred years ago, as can be seen in this 1899 Gloucester Atlas. Innumerable wooden schooners, sloops, and small craft were built in the cramped yards of Daniel Poland, Charles Woodbury, Dave "Alf" Story, John Bishop, Thomas Irving, and others. Many of the vessels were of 110 feet or more waterline, and were launched into water bent around Vincent Point, which was hardly greater than 75 to 100 feet wide. Far larger in 1830, the Cove lapped at main street (then Spring) following roughly the dotted line. Today, ghostly Vincent Cove-with its shipyards, Joe Call's spar yard, the original Cape Ann Anchor Works, lumbar yards, cola pockets, fish plants, and all its hum and pounding of activities-lies under pavement and buildings, the victim of a hundred years of encroachment completed around World War I and sealed with the extension of Rogers Street after the post-World War II final destruction of the old waterfront by urban renewal. It is an archeologist's dream perhaps, but a preservationist's nightmare.

This woodprint documents Vincent Cove as it stood in 1899.