The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village Museum will, during the month of October, display 42 works of art created by Grand Island artist Angelo F. LaDuca. The title of the show is "Angelo LaDuca Celebrates Being 80 With An Art Show."
There will be a free opening reception at the museum, located at 3755 Tonawanda Creek Road, Amherst, from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5. In addition, there will be a free artist talk at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 12. LaDuca will be giving a talk entitled "What an Artist Thinks About When Doing a Painting." A second free reception will take place from noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14. The art show will be on exhibit for the month of October for museum visitors.
LaDuca is a graduate of Colgate University and University of Buffalo Law School. His career included working as a real estate broker, appraiser, general contractor, land developer and property manager. Over the past 40 years, LaDuca has been very active in The Kairos Prison Ministry. After an active business career, he found it necessary in retirement to find a way to remain active without the day-to-day pressures of today's work environment.
LaDuca has been a resident on Grand Island for over 30 years and built two of the Grand Island homes that he has lived in. He feels that Grand Island has many attributes that make it a great place to live. He feels that its location makes it easy to access major destinations. He says that Grand Island enjoys a unique spiritual environment with a local church ministerium that brings together many of the churches on the Island. Plus, LaDuca said he and his wife, Barbara, have found that the people who live here make it a great community to raise a family, which included his four sons Paul, Peter, Alan and David.
LaDuca started painting at the age of 68 and in the last 12 years has studied at the Partners in Art School in North Tonawanda. He has created over 175 paintings that include still life, portraits and landscapes. He has participated in several art shows, including four shows where he was a featured artist. LaDuca has taken classes with several nationally known artists. He also volunteers to give talks to community groups on a number of topics, including art.
LaDuca contends that everyone has the potential for becoming a good artist if they are willing to make the effort to study the principles of creating exciting artwork. He says that Western New York is an area where there are many excellent opportunities for study, plus many very talented artists to interact with.
The artwork that LaDuca creates can best be described as Realism Art. He paints set ups of still life objects that he finds interesting, portraits of people he knows, and landscape scenes from places that he has traveled all over the world. He has learned that one of the best ways to learn art skills is to do studies of paintings created by famous artists. His present show will be primarily his own subjects, however there are a number of paintings, which are inspired by the work of well-known artists.
Visitors to these three free events will enable many individuals to experience for the first time the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Museum, which is a 35-acre complex featuring historical buildings, memorabilia and the art gallery.
At the age of 80, LaDuca says that one of the primary purposes of having this art show is to encourage people who view his work to realize that it is never too late to undertake new challenges. He feels that it is important in one's senior years to remain creatively active. He says there are many hobbies and activities that are available that require thought and effort to keep a person's mind active.