An Artful New Year for Arts for ACT Gallery - January 2014

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, January 03, 2014 from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for January 2014.  This month, ACT Gallery will feature Morgan Raines doing his “Sgraffito” art, the art of Susan Mills and Fort Myers photography by Buck Ward.  ACT Gallery will also be featuring the photography of new Member Artist, Dan Buechele of Akron, Ohio.  Come downtown to view great art and support ACT Gallery and Boutique. 

Morgan Raines

Morgan Raines

Morgan is originally from Jacksonville, Florida.  He started drawing and painting at age eight.  After college graduation, Morgan pursued a business career that took him to various places in the United States.  Along the way he followed his love of art through painting.  In 1992, while raising cattle on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, he opened Double-R-Prints, a graphic arts company that used many of Morgan’s art images on consumer products and business logos.  He now has a home in the Ozarks and Fort Myers, Florida.  Morgan continues to paint his themes from nature in his own artistic style called “Sgraffito.”  His work brings the viewer special textural contrasts and color combinations not found in the subjects depicted.  Working in his own variation of the “sgraffito” painting method, he applies 20 to 30 separate layers of various colored acrylic paints that dry individually on a stretched canvas.  When completely dry, he scrapes the painting with knives, working down to the desired color in the appropriate location on the painting, producing exceedingly multi-colored images with tactile, as well as visual textures.  You can see more of Morgan Raines online at www.morganraines.com or call 309-530-4731 for more information. 

Buck Ward

Buck Ward

Buck Ward grew up and was educated in Atlanta, Georgia.  He came to live in Fort Myers in the 1970s and, with an old inherited camera, began photographing in the early 80s.  Buck’s first focus was birds and butterflies and eventually landscapes.  For years, his focus was nature photography.  Buck tries to find the bits of beauty, the natural interstices in the urban coastal landscape. To find art among the myriad signs, poles, wires and parking lots; to find a beach not crowded with people, a horizon with no cell tower – are his challenges.  He embraced the built environment as the subject of his lens, using the light, the sky and clouds, the water, to reveal the art of nature in the mundane works of humans. 

Susan Mills

Susan Mills is a mixed media artist, painter and teacher.  This talented artist traditionally paints on canvas in various media including acrylics, pastels, oil and watercolors, she also incorporates recycled objects, babbles and jewels into her art.  The ordinary becomes extraordinary with her repurposed materials.  Belts become a part of tables and chairs.  Bowls are incorporated into her paintings and coffee filters become gorgeous handbags, wallets and clutches. 

Dan Buechele

Dan Buechele

Dan grew up in Highland Square in Akron, Ohio.  He received a BFA in photography from the University of Akron in 1998.  Returning as a graduate student in 2006 Dan received a MS in art education with an art, teaching license for K-12^th grades in 2010.  Dan works part-time in Akron Public Schools as an intervention specialist tutor.  Dan was interested in photography since 6^th grade summer camp where he made pin-hole cameras.  Dan’s favorite content is wildlife, nature and landscapes.  He has traveled across the States photographing in national parks.  He also has made several books encompassing his twenty five years as a photographer. 

These exhibits continue through Monday, February 03, 2014.