Fine Line Designs Gallery Announces Exhibit I Artist Reception

“Bee Eater” by Pete Zaluzec.

With four artists with roots deep in landscape, nature, and the outdoors, Fine Line Design Gallery of Ephraim is pleased to announce the first gallery exhibit of 2008, which will run from Friday, May 16 through Wednesday, June 11. The artist reception for Exhibit I is open to the public and scheduled for Saturday, May 24 from 4 – 6 pm. Refreshments are provided, and the artists from Exhibit I – Steve Langenecker, Tom Maakestad, Allan Servoss, and Pete Zaluzec – will be on hand to discuss their work.

Oil painter Steve Langenecker admits that he is a “seasonal painter” whose subjects of landscapes and birds haven’t changed much from when he inherited his mother’s acrylic paint set at the age of nine.

Landscape by Steve Langenecker.

Langenecker views painting as an adventure, filled with the “challenge of communicating and the excitement over what’s going to transpire on the canvas.” Light and how to portray it intrigues him the most.

Raised on a small farm in rural Minnesota, painter Tom Maakestad began to observe the sensual experience of the outdoors at a young age. Having focused on painting and drawing for 27 years, he has created a visual language to express his passion for color and light. His work for the Fine Line show, loosely titled “Color Fields,” merges the passion of technical application with a deep-rooted regard for the land.

A plein air painter who often sketches outdoors and paints indoors, Maakestad believes that the two different approaches lead to the same result. “My work tends to be less about a specific place, and more about the painting itself.”

Through the mediums of colored pencil and watercolor, Allan Servoss draws and paints “just what is necessary to keep my interest.” He says, “I strive to include only the essentials – similar to a Haiku poem.”

“The Sky is Filled With Voices” by Allan Servoss.

Servoss began his artistic career with watercolor, but has found that colored pencil has dominated his work for the past 15 or 20 years. Drawing only from his own memory, he creates a “someplace but not anyplace” aesthetic, a place where “a viewer can bring him or herself to my work and complete it for their own purpose.”

Bronze sculptor Pete Zaluzec has been creating life-size birds since 1980, but admits his interest in birds began at a much earlier age. Initially beginning his work in wood, he found the bronze process to be an easy transition.

“Even when I was carving, I would always design the pieces in clay first,” he says. “When I started my bronze work, it was an easy transition. The clay was still the artwork – I was refining my surface, developing my style, molding and casting – all in the clay. Only the end result was changing.”

Now familiar with bird anatomy, Zaluzec’s artistic focus is on the individual personality and expression of each species. He says, “There’s a certain repose that you can detect in birds, and I enjoy capturing that.”

Fine Line Design Gallery is located on Hwy 42 in North Ephraim. The gallery features original paintings, sculpture, custom wood furnishings, and fiber art rich in color and texture from over 90 nationally represented artists. Fine Line Design Gallery is open daily from 10 am – 6 pm and on Sundays from 10 am – 5 pm. For more information call 920.854.4343, or visit http://www.finelinedesigns.com.