Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

Almost one year ago I posted an image of a painting that I call MOTION on my January blog. I was never completely satisfied with it but liked it enough to continiue to look for solutions. I spent an inordinate amount of time sitting and staring at the painting. I hauled it ( it is 30" x 30") to a meeting of some Austin painting friends where we share criticism of one another's work. Then finally months later, I placed it on my easel, took brush in hand and modified it enough to call it done. I would love some feedback from you readers who would go to the http://www.carolesikes.blogspot.com/ , scroll down to the painting below the HAPPY NEW YEAR on last January's blog and tell me which version you like best. A common dilemma of many if not most painters is knowing when to stop. Often when one is having fun moving paint around, the painting can become overworked. This one was a great challenge and I like nothing better. Other paintings seem to slide right onto the can

Here are three images from my new series of paintings CHAUTAUQUA PORCHES. If you are new to my blog and are not a subscriber, you may wonder, "What is Chautauqua?" For an answer please go to www.carolesikes.blogspot.com to read my September blog and to see several photos taken while I was there. One is the bicycle on a porch. Our Austin weather is finally porch sitting weather. However if sitting is not in your physical vocabulary, here are a few art events for you to consider. The first recommendation on my list is a very handsome exhibition of paintings by LAURA SIKES BARROW at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd until the end of the year. Location: Windsor and Exposition in west Austin. Parking: Available on the inner campus driveway. Exhibition: in the administration building that faces the church. Hours: 9-5 Monday through Friday. Yes, I am her mother but as an artist and a former art teacher I can unabashedly declare, "she is good! "

It has been a year since I started my blog and 35 years since I sat on the "steering committee" of the Huntington Museum on the University of Texas campus. This past weekend my husband Charles, our friend McDonald Smith and I returned to the art building to see what has replaced the Huntington, later renamed the Blanton Museum. Pictured from left to right are CHARLES SIKES; JUDITH SIMS, Austin Museum of Art School and Laguna Gloria Site Director; JADE WALKER, director of the new U.T. Visual Arts Center and McDONALD SMITH, professor emeritus of Art History at U.T. The museum space in the art building, formerly occupied by the Huntington/Blanton, was vacated when the Blanton Museum moved into its new building on M.L.K. Street. The Art Building is located on the corner of San Jacinto Steet across from Royal Memorial Stadium and west across Trinity Street from the Performing Arts Center (Bass Hall). Its museum space was recently converted into the Visual Arts Center (VAC

Here are only a few photos from our week at Chautauqua, N.Y. Most vacations are over or shortly coming to an end. School, Football and a myriad of other activities have started but I couldn't let my blog move on without mentioning what has become one of my favorite get-aways. If you have not been to Chautauqua, please put it on your calendar for a future year. It is a great escape from the Texas heat. There are 9 theme weeks each summer. This year we chose Week 7, " Sacred Spaces". There were many speakers including Ken Burns who spoke to a capacity crowd in the 600 seat amphitheater on two occasions. Each morning there was a sermon and worship service led by Calvin O. Butts, pastor of a New York Harlem church. There were afternoon discussions about possible solutions to the Israel/Palestine problems in the "Hall of Philosophy", a Greek temple "look-alike building". In the evening in the "amp" there were concerts by the Chautauqua Symphony

A CLOSER LOOK Here are three images randomly selected from my current exhibition at Austin Museum of Art-Laguna Gloria's Gatehouse Gallery. My exhibition closes August 23rd. If you have not been by 3809 West 35th Street in Austin, I hope you will go. Gallery Hours are limited to Monday through Friday from 11:00 to 3:00. You can view the show while enjoying a sandwich and a salad available in the cafe. It has been so satisfying for me to see the entire series of paintings together on the gallery walls. Thanks to all who have made it by Laguna Gloria to see the show. Take time to enjoy the grounds at Laguna Gloria. When I taught there in the late 1960s there was very little activity in the Museum and the Museum School classes were taught upstairs in the Villa or on the grounds. Now we have Austin Museum of Art Downtown with many programs and changing exhibitions. The Clara Driscoll Villa has been restored to its original splendor. A very active AMOA School is located on the groun

AUSTIN MUSEUM OF ART-LAGUNA GLORIA We hope you will visit the Gatehouse Gallery on the grounds of Laguna Gloria at 3809 West 35th Street. Please plan to see my paintings in the gallery and have a sandwich and a salad in the cafe. My exhibition . CAROLE McINTOSH SIKES . RECENT PAINTINGS-A CLOSER LOOK . opens July 14th and continues through August 23rd. at AMOA-Laguna Gloria's Gatehouse Gallery. The Gallery hours are 11:00 -3:00 Monday through Friday. I hope you enjoy the show. If you have been receiving my blog, you will recognize the paintings, mostly of nature at close range. It has been a fun series to paint. I appreciate Dana Friis-Hansen, the Director of Austin Museum of Art and Judith Sims, Senior Director of Education for the opportunity to exhibit my paintings in AMOA's Gatehouse Gallery.

The gatehouse is the most recently restored historic building on the grounds. Unbelievably, it originally housed the Galvan family of ten. Nazio, his wife Benita and their eight children lived here from 1929 - 1945. Clara Driscoll relied on Mr. Galvan to implement her vision for the grounds around her villa on Lake Austin. Earlier Stephen F. Austin saw this property and admired the site and wrote in 1832, "I want the best land that can be had. I shall fix a place on the Colorado at the foot of the mountains to live." Death prevented him from spending the rest of his life here. In 1906 Henry Servier said to his well traveled bride Clara Driscoll, "I know a place in Texas that has everything Lake Como has...the mountains, the water, the quiet beauty, peaceful and romantic atmosphere and the advantage of being at home." The Serviers purchased the land and completed construction of the villa in 1916. In 1943 she donated Laguna Gloria to the Texas Fine Arts Associa

Early one fall morning I looked out to see the sun seeping through the fog and around the dark shapes. Almost everything was obscured except a hint of our casita that serves as our studio. Although not my usual mode of working, this image stayed in my mind begging for release. Here it is, altered by my memory and abstracted to present what remains memorable for me. It is 24" x 24" Oil on Canvas "FRACTURED SUNLIGHT". SUMMER AT AUSTIN, TEXAS ART MUSEUMS: At the BLANTON MUSEUM on the University of Texas campus "Matisse as Printmaker" continues until August 22nd. The 63 prints from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation demonstrate a variety of technique and subject matter. They range from etching to woodcut and linoleum cut to the one-of-a-kind monotype. Matisse's editions were often 25 or 50 prints enabling numerous collectors, who could not afford his paintings or sculptures, to own and enjoy works in which he was deeply engaged throughout his career.

ALICE NEEL 12" x 12" oil on canvas Whoever heard of Alice Neel (1900-1984)? I did about 10 years ago when the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York gave a retrospective exhibition of her work. Her reputation was at its height at the time of her death. Because I had just started painting again after a 20+ year sabbatical, I was intrigued and hopeful that my art career still had some years to go. In fact I was so interested and amused that I painted this portrait of Alice Neel from published photographs of her in later years. The HOUSTON MUSEUM OF ART has put together "ALICE NEEL: PAINTED TRUTHS" so you can learn about her by visiting the Museum's Caroline Wiess Law building where their retrospective continues until June 13th. Check out the Museum of Fine Art Houston's web sight (MFAH.org) to order the catalog (same name as the show) for $65.00. Her life and works are featured in a documentary directed by her grandson; "Alice Neel" premiered

It's APRIL and my easel and drawing board still await me. Because it is time for my once-a-month blog...here goes:    I hope everyone's Easter was filled with joy and thanksgiving and chocolate bunnies.    Our three weeks in London were filled with museums, visited and revisited, and a three day interlude in Barcelona.    Yes, there were discoveries. In Barcelona it was the free spirit of that city, past and present. In London it was the Courtauld (prononced COURT-OLD) Collection at Somerset House in the heart of London on Embankment Street at the Waterloo Bridge. The gallery and institution are located  across the open court, or from an entrance on Strand.     Fine art from many periods, but my delight was seeing several Cezannes, a van Gogh and other 20th century paintings so familiar and so often reproduced from this relatively small, yet amazing private collection. I recommend you google it.

It's King's X for the month of March. I'm out, gone, no esta, but I'll be back online after April Fools' Day. The big new is that Lake Travis is full. See the view from our porch! Even our "catch pond" is full. No it's not for catching fish, but for filtering the run off from our rains so that the soil does not silt our cove and make it more shallow. Next month I hope to be painting again. If so I'll post an image and some comments on what's going on in the art world around Austin. And perhaps I will have some comments on what we discovered in London and Barcelona. Did you catch the movie AN EDUCATION? It was brought back because it is one of the ten Academy Award nominations. I hope you will scroll down to read my "review" of it in my December 2009 blog.

GULF COAST SPLASH 30" x 30" Oil on Canvas This painting is the result of my sitting on a sea wall at a friend's house located on the intercoastal canal in Port Aransas, Texas. Staring at the splashes against the rocks is hypnotizing. Like snow flakes, no two splashes are alike. As a result of a trip to the west coast many years ago and watching the waves break on the beach, I painted a wave. This painting reminded me of that similar experience. Toni, do you remember buying that wave for your son's wedding gift? The colors on our Texas Gulf Coast can't compare with the incredible blue of the Pacific Ocean, but I borrowed a little of that color for my Texas splash. Artist'd Privilege! MUSEUM SHOW: At the GETTY CENTER in Los Angeles until February 28 is "Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference". If you can't make the trip, do as I did. The interactive on the Getty's web site allows zooming in on the images. You can test yourself b

"MOTION" oil on canvas, 30" x 30" This painting has been especially challenging because I liked it very much after the initial working hours and was fearful that I would take out all the spontaneity as I completed it. This was resolved with the help of Fairfield Porter's comments in his book, ART IN ITS OWN TERMS, that I received for Christmas and was reading. Porter says, "Form coordinates diversity, it does not pile up facts. That is why form comes from the artist looking for chaos... (and in nature I do)... he (she) finds that order is directly discoverable by unconscious awareness which is wiser than awareness directed by reason following systematic rules." I believe this to be true. Without unconscious awareness or intuition, one can easily fall back on rules, however the painting often sacrifices energy, freedom and spontaneity. As a former art teacher, I encouraged students to first learn "to see", which is more than just "

EXHIBITIONS:      Works by DAVID BATES are at AMOA downtown through January 31. He is a Texas Gulf Coast painter producing large, strong, narrative paintings and often using fabric, wood, etc. as well as oil paint. The subject matter is personal and arresting. Some works are inspired by the death of his parents; in others Hurricane Katrina is the subject.  It is a "don't miss". He is represented in Dallas by Dunn and Brown Gallery located at 5020 Tracy Street in Highland Park. They are presenting a show of his work Jan. 14 - Feb. 20. In Austin, don't miss the group show at D Berman Gallery, 1701 Guadalupe Street. "Chill" includes watercolors, drawings, sculptural works and paintings by Sydney Yeager and six others. It closes Feb. 6. There is still more to learn about the PETROBELLI ALTERPIECE and PAOLO VERONESE at the BLANTON MUSEUM at 200 East MLK Street on the U.T. campus. Jonathan Bober, curator of prints, drawings and European paintings, will give y