Exhibit: Saturday, February 8, through Saturday, March 28
Reception: Friday, February 28, 6 – 9 p.m.
MidCoast at Bucktown Gallery, 225 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Beautiful and evocative artworks by a pair of area talents will find a home at the MidCoast at Bucktown Gallery from February 8 through March 28, with the Davenport venue hosting a showcase of collage works by Amber Williams and paintings by Jane Doty.
Amber Williams has worked in collage since childhood and refocused on the medium in 2010, saying, “I deconstruct materials by color, pattern, shape, et cetera, to create new images.” Her new collages expand the kinds of materials and processes she incorporates, including underlying collages, chips of paint, feathers, and polyacrylic photo-transfers. She also has moved from landscapes above ground to playful interpretations of sea creatures. The common ground connection between the types of images in her works is experimentation.
Jane Doty retired from teaching in 2013, set up a studio at her home, and embarked on learning painting. She became a professional artist in 2015 when she came on board at the Bucktown Center for the Arts and sold her works out of the MidCoast Artists’ Market. Her career climbed to a new level when she was commissioned to create works for the new Merrill Hotel through her representation in the Sunrise Gallery in Muscatine. Like Williams, she pursues experimentation: “In my paintings,” she says, “manipulating the colors, light, depth, and texture of what I see is my challenge.” Her subjects range from representation to abstraction, and the artist says, “Holding onto a moment of beauty, a memory, a story, is why I paint.”
An artists' reception for Amber Williams, Jane Doty, and Sam McFarland (whose own Bucktown exhibit opens on February 15) will take place at the Bucktown Center for the Arts on February 28 from 6 to 9 p.m., and regular gallery hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entrance to the exhibits and reception is free, and more information is available by calling (563)424-1210 or visiting MidCoast.org.
