Staff
Art-lovers will have another place to visit around here now that Fort Frances native Cherie Serrano (nee Taylor) is set to open her very own gallery across the river in Ranier, Mn.
An open house is planned for this Friday (May 29) from 4-7 p.m. to launch the venture.
“Rainy Lake Gallery,” located at 2069 Spruce St. in Ranier, will showcase 25 of Serrano’s original framed paintings, many of which feature well-known scenes on Rainy Lake.
“I have plenty of artwork to display and I was just hoping to find a place to display it,” Serrano said of her decision to open a gallery.
“And [Ranier is] a beautiful town,” she added. “It’s a really nice area, there are a lot of people coming through, and I think it’s ideal, being that I mainly paint lake scenes and it’s right on the water there.”
“Most of the people that visit that town are there for Rainy Lake, so they can appreciate what I paint,” she reasoned. “So it really worked out well.”
“I’m sure [area residents] will be able to relate to the scenes, the subject matter.”
While the main focus of her paintings are landscapes and lake scenes (done in oils and acrylics on canvas), Serrano paints some florals and wildlife, as well, and also has started to paint some portraits in the last few years.
“I’ve been painting for years, since I was 13,” noted Serrano, who was born and raised in Fort Frances but moved away about 14 years ago.
She returned to the area two years ago to be closer to family, settling in International Falls, Mn. with her husband and sons.
“It’s been great to be back,” she enthused.
Up until this point, Serrano mainly had been selling her art through a gallery called “Wild Wings,” based out of Lake City, Mn., which also shows work all over the United States and Canada.
“I sell a lot of work to them, and whatever doesn’t sell I try to get back after a certain amount of time and I try to sell it in this area,” she explained.
“It’s kind of fun!
“I had paintings at my husband’s office, Border State Bank, at an interior decorator’s shop, and my home—so all of those have been robbed now,” she laughed, referring to getting ready to open up the new gallery over the past few weeks.
“I’ve taken them all out—well, I left a few.”
The gallery in Ranier will serve as both her art studio and a place where people can drop by to see her work. Most people are familiar with the space, she noted, because it used to be a gallery years ago.
Rainy Lake Gallery will be open Fridays from 5-7 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
