Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

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