Ariel Nikulski

Ariel Nikulski has always loved art since she was a little kid.  Drawing, creating, and building things from scratch have been enjoyable for her because it allows her to bring out her creative side.  As young as kindergarten, Ariel wanted to do more than just color in a coloring book or draw a bunch of stick figures on paper, so Pat Bereskin and her Bereskin Art Academy were recommended to her as an art program for kids. When an opening became available, Ariel started taking lessons from Bereskin Art Academy in second grade.

Pat or Mrs. B, as the art students call her, saw a hidden talent in Ariel and she brought it to the surface.  When Ariel first started the program, she didn't know how to paint or draw in any formal manner, but through Mrs. B's teaching and direction, Ariel was able to express her thoughts and feelings on paper better than before.  After Ariel saw how the classes were helping her, she was inspired to learn even more about art.  In order to become a better artist, four years ago at age 11, Ariel set a personal goal to be an above average artist. She began this goal by pushing herself and growing her current skills while continuing to better understand art in order to make the needed improvements to make her goal. When Covid happened, that only encouraged her to work harder on her drawing and painting skills.  Through this effort, she has grown dramatically in the past four years from sixth grade to her freshman year of high school.

After continuously working on charcoal and acrylic for an extended period of time, Ariel decided to try something new.  She hadn't worked with oil painting formally, so she decided to take a Plein Air class with David Anderson as an attempt to begin to understand the medium.  After only one day of his class, she fell in love with it and craved to explore and understand more. In order to grow as an oil painter, she took weekly classes with David at the Figge Art Museum and after a few months of classes, David told Ariel that she had grown so much with her skills that he wanted her to be one of the artists to produce work for the gallery at Nikulski Financial.  Ariel was shocked and honored to be entrusted with such a large project. Through this project, she has grown substantially as an artist and she plans to continue to grow her art skills as her journey in art continues. 

Ariel's work on display at Nikulski Financial, Inc. includes the following: 

Fountain - VanderVeer Park Oil

Back Yard

Rock