RANA JORDAHL FINE ART

GROWING up in a family of women where creativity was always encouraged, Rana Jordahl’s path to becoming a professional artist seemed almost laid out from childhood. After beginning her career in advertising and graphic design, she transitioned to fine art upon moving to Charleston in 2002 and has built on her inherent talent using the principles she learned in graphic design. “Graphic design has aided me well in terms of conception, design, composition, drawing and color harmony,” she says, noting that she has honed her painting skills by taking many painting workshops and studying locally under the tutelage of Elizabeth Bronson in McClellanville for years.

Jordahl became part owner of Lowcountry Artists Gallery in 2007 and has since been a full-time professional painter. She describes her style as contemporary impressionism and loves to capture her subjects in a mixture of abstraction and representative form, using thick, expressive brushstrokes. She keeps a multitude of tools in her kit, from brushes and palette knives to paint shapers and brayers. “I have a love for painting the animals that I grew up around from my Midwest upbringing as well as from the Lowcountry, including herons, egrets, pelicans and other shorebirds, cows and chickens,” she says. “I also enjoy the creative process and flexibility of setting up still life arrangements.