Marion Ranyak

Marion Lorraine Ranyak (25 January 1925 — 22 August 2018) was an American painter who lived and worked in Rye, New York, and was a founding member of SOHO20. Her father was a public school principal and later a member of the Board of Examiners (1921–53), an agency in New York City that set personnel standards for administrators and educators. Her mother operated a successful family-owned sand and gravel company. they divorced in the mid-1970s

In 1946, after an unsatisfactory educational experience at Wheelock College, At SOHO20, she initially exhibited painted geometric abstractions and cement "sandcastings," but an interest in photography led her to explore more realistic views of nature. who described her landscapes as "modest" but with "an air of authority." Raynor later wrote that Ranyak "makes Neil Welliver look like an Expressionist." Ranyak was praised by another critic for her ability to suggest texture while using flatly applied acrylic paint, as in Nova Scotia—Grassy Slope (1985). Her later paintings of fields in upstate New York were well received by Michael Brenson, who wrote, "She touches the canvas as delicately as a bird … The light in her paintings is always at that point of gray heat that sets everything in a landscape in motion."

Ranyak remained a full member of SOHO20 until 1988 and continued as an associate member until 1995. In later years, she lost interest in the urban art scene and exhibited primarily in Westchester County, New York. She died on 22 August 2018, in Stamford, Connecticut)