3 generations of artistry on display at Lowe Center gallery

Julia Kulish grew up in a house full of art, surrounded by art history on the walls and watching her father paint in his studio, carved out of a spare bedroom in their Cedar Rapids home.

Art appreciation is the legacy the late Bruno and Suzanne Randles passed on to their 10 children, and it's the legacy their youngest child hopes to paint for her five children.

Three generations of Randles/Kulish artistry is captured in 'Creative Legacies,” on exhibit through Jan. 30 at the Lowe Center Gallery, 4500 10th St. Marion. At first glance, visitors will see three very distinctive styles in oils, acrylics and pencil, but common threads quickly emerge.

Randles, perhaps more well-known for playing trumpet in the local Leo Greco Band, fancied Southwestern themes, painting animals, Native Americans and cowboy portraits in a naturalistic style. Kulish reflects her love of gardening and Georgia O'Keefe by painting huge, vibrant flowers. Her son Zach Kulish, 24, a graphic designer who lives in Cedar Rapids, provides the bridge between the generations through powerful animal, human and skeletal forms, often stamped with an abstract flower. The three artists use splashes of bright, intense colors.

'I've wanted to do this kind of show for a long time, since my father passed away,” Julia Kulish said, 'but I wasn't quite sure how it would all fit together.”

As the paintings went up on the walls, however, she was amazed to see the similarities.

'I thought, well that's weird, it kind of all pulls together,” she said.

Now 46 and an accomplished oil painter, Kulish, of rural Center Point, didn't pick up a paint brush until her mid-20s.

'I never got into art myself until I was an adult, because in my mind, I associated art with sitting for long, long hours, being the model for posing when he would do portraits. So I really didn't have a very good taste in my mouth about the actual drawing and painting part of it - but always an appreciation for good art.”

She finally turned to art when her children were little.

'I starting doing it as a stress reliever - doodling a little bit here and there,” she said. 'Then I showed my dad some of the stuff I was doing. He was a great artist, not great teacher, not a lot of patience. He said to me, ‘It lacks life. You just need to get some how-to books.' And so I said, ‘Fine, I will,' and started poring over any kind of art books I could ahold of.

'Eventually, he said, ‘Well, you're not doing too bad,' and sat down with me and started teaching me how to do watercolors and oils. As soon as I started painting in oils, that was the medium I found most appealing.”

Her father, widowed when Kulish was 8, moved to Colorado for the last 15 years of his life, and died in a car accident at age 83. He was very healthy and painted right up to the end, Kulish said.

She continued to learn from his work after his death.

He had two commissioned paintings about halfway done, which her siblings brought to her, hoping she could finish them.

'I sat down to do these paintings, and they were way out of my comfort zone,” she said, 'because Southwest art is not my thing. I just started studying what he did. I wanted to make sure I conveyed as much of his style as I could.

'In my mind, I was thinking it was going to be a collaboration between the two of us, and so as I was looking at his work and studying the brush strokes, the color choices, the composition, I had this epiphany moment: ‘Oh my gosh, my dad is giving one last art lessons from him, without him even being here.' I learned so much, just studying it carefully.

'That led me to be thinking about how he gave me some art lessons throughout my life without me even realizing it.”

Her mom was an artist, too, but died young and didn't get to fully develop her talent. 'I think she would have been the better artist,” Kulish said.

Her father - who was a professional musician when the kids were young, then turned to real estate - lived by the credo of painting every day. He turned out thousands of paintings, some of which his kids had to rescue from the garbage pile.

'Not all of them were great,” Kulish said. 'That is the one thing that really struck me. He said to me a zillion times over, that you paint every day. If you want to get good, you've gotta paint every day. He really did live by that principle.”

She has heeded that advice, and is turning her hobby into more of a business. She and her husband, Craig, own a small electrical company and she works in the office when she 'feels like it.” She also home-schools their kids, but has managed to turn out several hundred paintings.

She belongs to a couple of artist groups locally, and has exhibited and sold her works, for anywhere from $200 to $800, depending on the size of the canvas. She enjoys teaching art, as well, and has offered some small-group and individual classes. Her husband is converting their garage into a studio so she will have a larger work space.

Art is part of her heart and soul, by nature and nurture.

'It is very soothing,” she said. 'I believe strongly that we're all created to be creative in some way, and so to me, it is the opportunity to express that creativity. And to share that with other people is an awesome thing. I'm happy to be able to do that.”

For her own children, she wants them to develop 'an eye for beauty and good art.”

”I want them to see the world around them, and look for beauty in art,” she said.

That will be her legacy.

IF YOU GO

' What: 'Creative Legacies,” artwork by Julia Kulish, Zach Kulish and Bruno Randles

' Where: Lowe Park Arts & Environment Center, 4500 10th St., Marion

' When: Through Jan. 30; 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday; 1 to 3 p.m. first Saturday of the month

' Admission: Free

' Online: Marionartscouncil.com, Juliakulish.com, Instagram.com/zachkul/