Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

UNTAMED 30" x 30" Oil on Canvas This is another large oil painting on canvas from my series that I'm calling NATURE UP CLOSE. The smaller works on paper from this series are posted below on earlier blogs. I'm hoping to exhibit some of these paintings at a future date. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to talk about my life-long belief that everyone who wishes can learn to see as painters and poets see. One can find interest and beauty in the ordinary -- the many things that we walk and drive by everyday without noticing. The first step is learning to see. I still remember our young children in the back seat on a car trip exclaiming, "Oh Dear, Mother and Dad have their ART EYES on again!"

CASSANDRA JAMES at Laguna Gloria's Gatehouse Gallery, 3809 West 35th Street, Austin, TX      This former teacher at AMOA School of Art will display some of her stunning oil paintings and her personal sketchbooks beginning Sunday November 15th, with a preview reception from 6-8 p.m.. The Gatehouse Gallery's hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. It's best to park outside the grounds and walk to the Gatehouse just inside the entrance to your left.      It is wonderful to have Cassandra and her husband Mark Bierner back in Austin. Charles and I have painted with Cassandra in Tuscany, North Carolina, and of course here in central Texas. I can assure you will be delighted with her work.      Quote by John Singer Sargent: "Sketch everything and keep your curiousity fresh."  Cassandra's sketch books will demonstrate that! KEVA RICHARDSON at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin   ...

     The list of writers who also paint is amazing. Among the 96 featured in THE WRITER'S BRUSH by DONALD FRIEDMAN are Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, Allen Ginsberg, Tennessee Williamns, Henry Miller, James Thurber, Annie Dillard, Beatrix Potter, Lawrence Durrell, Kahlil Gilbran, Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau, ee Cummings, and others. There are 5 Nobel Laureates, 5 U.S. Poet Laureates, and numerous Pulitzer Prize and Natonal Book Award writers.      Perhaps you saw the 2007 CBS Sunday Morning News show about the exhibition that Friedman put together at Anita Shapolsky Gallery NYC. He states, "They (these writers) paint for many different reasons...all have so much creativity that no one medium can contain it."      The hard bound book is published by Mid-List Press, distributed by Random House and available at Amazon.com, new and used from $10. to $30.00.

CORRECTION     I thank you Dana for correcting my note regarding the Sydney Yeager portrait at AMOA. My apologies go to Austin artist/photographer George Krause. I incorrectly attributed his photograph to Chuck Close who is the feature artist in the current AMOA show. George Krause is represented in Austin at the dBerman Gallery. MUSEUM NEWS    Last month on National Public Radio I heard that a Graham Green unfinished and unpublished novel was discovered. Guess where? It was found in Austin in the University of Texas HUMANITIES RESEARCH COLLECTION (HRC). I confirmed this with director Tom Staley who had associate librarian Richard Workman call with details. The initial collection was acquired from the author before his death in 1991. It is a mystery story to be published in serial form in an English magazine that I believe is called The Strand.    Did you know that the erudite and enthusiastic new director of the BLANTON MUSEUM OF ...