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| Beach Boy - Stephen Gray Blancett |
Stephen
Gray Blancett
Born in Southeastern Ohio, Blancett
moved to South Florida in 1982 and studied advertising design at the Art
Institute of Fort Lauderdale and business at Nova University. For
the past 25 years, he has worked two sides of the advertising and publishing
businesses, as a creative/art director and model for clients ranging from Citi
Corp to Jockey Underwear. Stephen said: “I love the business, but find
creativity is sometimes limited by a market or product. My fine art gives me
the fuel and freedom to express myself, my feelings and my individuality. It
allows me to be me.”
Blancett
started painting and winning awards for his work at the young age of seven. He
painted portraits and pastoral scenes in watercolor almost exclusively until
the mid 90’s. “I enjoyed working in watercolors, but felt no ownership of a
style. I tried many approaches, but it always looked like someone else’s work.
The results were okay, but too wholesome for me. I like things that are bright,
colorful and sometimes sexy. It may have taken me a long time, but I have
discovered my own style – my own way,” says Stephen.
Stephen Gray Blancett's works
are in the collection of many notable celebrities, and in corporate and private
collections around the world. His work has been featured in numerous
publications and is exhibited in galleries across the country and in the
UK. He was honored in 2011 as the Visual Artists of the Year, by Lee
County Alliance of the Arts.
Stephen's work are fun, contemporary and colorful.
Stephen's work are fun, contemporary and colorful.
Artist statement:
The art I create allows me
the fuel and freedom to express myself, my feelings and my individuality.
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| Promises for the Future by Michael Pohlman |
Michael Pohlman will be
exhibiting off the main gallery
Michael
Pohlman studied Art at Bradley University, Prairie State College, and Calumet
College with professors from the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1995, he
was juried into the inaugural show at the Union Street Gallery in Chicago
Heights, Illinois. After this exhibit, he accepted a Union Street offer
of a Resident Artist studio. For the next ten years, his abstract and sports
paintings were shown in multiple venues in Chicago. In 2005, he moved to
Fort Myers and opened his Gulf Breeze Studio. Michael has had two
individual and a two person exhibit at Arts for ACT Gallery in Fort
Myers. He has been juried into various shows at ACT Gallery, as well as,
the Alliance for Arts, daas Gallery, Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and
the von Liebig Center in Naples. His work is in collections in
China, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United states.
Michael
was a recipient 2013 City of Fort Myers Art and Cultural Grant. “Patterns of the Land” A City of Fort
Myers Art and Cultural Grant Exhibition
Using
the principles of Gottlieb, Braque, Hofman, Rothko, and Hodgkins, Pohlman
started this series on small surfaces by exploring Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Hex
symbols and Antique quilt patterns as muses. He moved on to larger format
landscapes and blending them towards abstraction with line and color
value. This provided an intriguing juxtaposition of real symbols to
abstract canvases of color and line patterns. It is his hope that this will
become a catalyst for new thinking about our land and its beauty for all who
encounter these images.
These exhibits continue through Monday, November 26,
2013.
