Dranchak Studio

Sue Dranchak’s art career began during her college years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Summer seasonal work with the Alaska Railroad brought her to Alaska from Portland, Oregon in 1995. During the winter lay off season she began taking classes at the nearby university where she found herself gravitating toward the art department, learned to paint and graduated in 2001 with a BFA in Painting. In addition to the arts, Sue loves the outdoors and adventure and it shows in her series of paintings that expand on various nature themes derived from her immediate surroundings as well as her travels. One of her first ongoing series of paintings is called “Meditation Forest.” These colorful and expressive paintings are inspired by images from the boreal forest environment of her Alaska home combined with thoughts, ideas and moments from her experiences there. Sue parted ways with the Alaska Railroad in 2003 to explore the possibility of a full time career in the fine arts. She spent some time travelling to various types of geographical regions to explore new landscapes through her paintings. Departing from traditional landscape compostitions, Sue focuses on various aspects of landscape features such as texture and rhythm. Some of her various series that have evolved over recent years are “Tidal Offerings” from sea kayak excursions in the northwest and “Desert Garden” from exploration of the Arizona desert region. Sue now resides part time in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband who lives there, and part time in Alaska. She has a connection and a relationship with each of the respective areas. Although most of her artwork is completed in her studio, she spends as much time as possible out in the field exploring her subject matter and gathering images for visual reference with her camera and her sketchbook.