Arts for Act: An Artful New Year for Arts for ACT Gallery - Janu...

Arts for Act: An Artful New Year for Arts for ACT Gallery - Janu...: 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 r...

Arts for Act: An Artful New Year for Arts for ACT Gallery - Janu...

Arts for Act: An Artful New Year for Arts for ACT Gallery - Janu...: 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 r...

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.   

Arts for Act: Berreitter, Brodersen, Anfinsen and Koyanis at ACT...

Arts for Act: Berreitter, Brodersen, Anfinsen and Koyanis at ACT...: Press Release Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, December 06, 2013 from 6 to 10 pm...

Arts for Act: Berreitter, Brodersen, Anfinsen and Koyanis at ACT...

Arts for Act: Berreitter, Brodersen, Anfinsen and Koyanis at ACT...: Press Release Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, December 06, 2013 from 6 to 10 pm...

Berreitter, Brodersen, Anfinsen and Koyanis at ACT Gallery

Press Release

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, December 06, 2013 from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for November 2013.  This month, ACT Gallery will feature two photographers,Lynn Berreitter & Pam Brodersen, the art of Carol Anfinsen and mixed media art by Alisha Koyanis.  Come downtown to view great art and support ACT Gallery and Boutique. 

The Red Fish House Lynn Berreitter

Lynn Berreitter's interest in photography came at an early age while watching her Father develop images of her in his basement darkroom. Fascinated by the process, she picked up her sisters brownie camera and began to take photos. She still has those black and white pictures from the late 1960’s which were taken to the local pharmacy for developing. She was finally able to "play" in the darkroom when she took her first photography class in 7^th grade. Through school, she played with 110 cameras and amassed many snapshots and photo albums and fell in love with the camera. For her 12^th grade graduation, she received a Canon TX as a  present, her first SLR camera with interchangeable lenses.  In college, Lynn worked on the school newspaper and spent many hours in the darkroom. She became a freelancer with the local Trenton, NJ newspapers, opened up her own black and white archival print lab, and worked at photographing the local flavor of the area. The introduction to Digital came later with her first DSLR which was purchased in 2003. The switch from shooting people to shooting nature happened when she and her husband moved to Florida. Fighting the “manipulation of the image” she strived to keep her images pure and unaltered. With the advent of the iphone, that all changed. The pure fun of shooting with the iphone was irresistible.  Not only did she start to use her iphone everyday to shoot, she also uses toy cameras with film to experience why she picked up that camera in the first place. It’s been a long love affair that she hopes will continue to the end.  

 

World's Largest by Pam Brodersen

Pam Brodersen is a digital artist whose process goes far beyond the taking of a digital photograph.  A stylus on a pressure sensitive monitor becomes her brush and allows her to hand work her images.  Computer software becomes her digital darkroom.  With a mastery of these tools and technology there is no restriction to her creativity. Pam is a full time resident of Sanibel, who draws on her experience as a commercial photographic illustrator.  In her Chicago studio she worked on national advertising campaigns for clients such as Kelloggs, United Airlines,  MacDonalds, Pillsbury, Disney.  Her commercial film work won both national and local Gold Addys.  She continues to win awards with her digital images.

Ragaae Night Carol Anfinsen 

Carol Anfinsen – "The Human Spirit -- a Celebration of People and Places" Showing off the main Gallery 

Carol started her fine art career first as a freelance writing consultant. She also wrote children’s stories and articles for children's magazines. This led to a contract for writing a series of educational video scripts for children which branched out into adult education and training projects; consulting with such entities as Marshfilm Companies, The Learning Exchange, local school districts, Courage Center, St. Paul Companies, Vancouver Aquarium, and Northwest Airlines.  Carol has created children’s stories, scripts, educational and training materials for schools, physician organizations and corporations. She has designed and written newsletters, brochures, stationery and varied marketing materials using elements of graphic design.  Carol believes there is spirit, voice, and emotion even in inanimate objects, but especially in living things. She envisions each object, each life force speaking out – no, shouting out to her. Carol tries to portray nature as honestly and beautifully as she sees it. She exaggerates color and movement. Having a vivid imagination her portraits are a favorite. Carol hopes viewers will experience joy when they look at my paintings.

Alisha Koyanis is a new and emerging artist but is quickly making her mark in the art scene. She has been featured in galleries, won awards and even started her own event Drink and Doodle in Southwest Florida. She is an art teacher in Fort Myers, Fl. She attended FSU, but is a self taught painter. She was raised in Rhode Island by her mother who fed her creative imagination full of colorful, whimsical creatures which can be seen in her work today. Alisha's work can be best described as a skittles bag explosion of color. Not a tradition artist inspiration is drawn from comic, tattoos, childhood adventures, found materials, family and friends. Each piece does not follow a constant theme. However, each piece is bright and eye catching in hopes of bringing happiness to the viewer.

Angry Attack Smore - Alisha Koyanis

These exhibits continue through Monday, December 30, 2013

Opening November 1st Stephen Gray Blancett, Michael Pohlman and Bill Hofer at ACT Gallery

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, November 1, 2013 from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for November 2013.  This month, ACT Gallery will feature “Expanding the Palette” by Mixed Media Artist Stephen Gray-Blancett, Photography by Bill Hofer and “Patterns of the Land” by Michael Pohlman.  Come downtown to view great art and support ACT Gallery and Boutique. 

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.

Artist statement:

The art I create allows me the fuel and freedom to express myself, my feelings and my individuality.

 

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.