Rana’s award-winning painting, Helter Skelter. Photo by Debby Bolton.
Marianne Graff
The PebbleCreek Art Club is delighted to award Rana Cukierski Artist of the Month for January 2019. Rana comes from Elmhurst, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Wanting to pursue a career in art, she took several art classes during her senior year of high school. Rana then took art and music classes at the Colorado State University, graduating with a degree in Psychology. She also spent many happy hours skiing, parasailing, hang gliding and mountain climbing along with playing the piano and banjo during nighttime hours.
Rana moved back from Colorado to Chicago and began to take evening classes at the Art Institute for Interior Design while working days at the Merchandise Mart. She graduated with an Interior Design/Architecture degree, soon married and eventually became a stay-at-home mom with two children. After several years, Rana started an interior design business from her home. She spent the next 23 years doing renderings on a drafting board and drawings by hand. After selling her business, she became a partner in an upscale women’s clothing store and in her spare time played tennis and did some art work—now realizing how much she looked forward to retiring and making more time for artistic opportunities.
Rana and her husband, Leonard, found PebbleCreek in 2010 and came for long weekends until they bought a home and began to explore the arts and outdoor activities the community had to offer. At first their efforts were only part time, but they moved here permanently in 2013. Rana joined the Tennis Club, served on its board and is currently captain of a WVTL team. She also joined the Art Club and began to take classes in various mediums including watercolor, pastel, drawing and alcohol inks. In February of 2016, Rana took a class in colored pencil with Marsha Lyons. This medium was her chief interest as she had previously done many design renderings in colored pencil. She loved the class and spent many hours practicing and applying her knowledge and skills to all different objects or forms. She has done much research acquiring expertise in techniques, styles and materials.
Rana says she prefers colored pencil because she enjoys on the one hand the “challenge of serene mountain landscapes, farm scenes and flowers that call for soft and muted tones. On the other hand, Rana’s favorite challenges revolve around “whimsical, out-of-the-box bright, crazy shapes, colors and designs.” She loves the detail work and finds some paintings take countless hours and layers in order to achieve just the right look. For all this creativity, her inspiration can come in the middle of the night, when she looks at things upside down or, most notably, during the day when she least expects it.
You are invited to view her work on display in the Creative Arts Center and in the Tuscany Falls and Eagle’s Nest Clubhouses