Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

IMAGE: WINTER SKY or VERTIGO 30" X 40" Oil on Canvas While painting this winter's sky above and beyong the leafless arbor, I discovered that the composition works in three positions. Turn it upside down or even vertically with the wall at the bottom. "Vertigo" seems an appropriate title and suggestive of my sensations while looking up to capture this image. It belongs to the series NATURE UP CLOSE and can be viewed in an alternate position (below) with the smaller paintings on paper.

ART EXHIBITIIONS:     At the KIMBELL MUSEUM in Fort Worth is a very fine exhibition entitled FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF TEXAS: EUROPEAN ART, ANCIENT TO MODERN. Many of the paintings and art pieces are on loan from heirs or museums around the country that received them from deceased collectors. I confess that I was not expecting the quality or the scope of this show. The 453 page catalog gives a comprehensive history of private collecting in Texas beginning in the mid nineteenth century. The art (mostly paintings) in these collections date from 700 B.C. through the 1940s. Interesting photographs of many of the homes in which these important paintings exist, or did exist in the past, is the bonus both in the exhibition and in the catalog.      Also in Fort Worth at the MODERN MUSEUM through Jan. 3: Don't miss paintings by SUSAN ROTHENBERG, an important contemporary painter. The Modern is just across the street from the Kimbell. A  MOVIE      There will be some good new ones