Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

              WINTER COMETH   12" x 12"    oil on canvas Have you ever had a really smashing idea only to find that there are literally worlds of people who had the same idea and most likely already had acted on it ?   My first confirmation of this happened when I was still wearing high heels that I constantly ruined while driving my car. I envisioned a simple pad to put under the accelerator to protect the leather heel of my right shoe only to find that very thing for sale at the local car wash. My husband and children had even helped me dream up a name; it would be marketed as "Heel Protect"! Its only worth was a lot of laughs around our dining table, but I suppose the inventor didn't make a fortune on the idea either. As a practicing artist I continue to discover other painters running with the same ideas that I have had when standing at my easel trying to sol...

                     Thanksgiving was wonderful. The weather was perfect, the leaves did their thing, our son and his family from Dallas were happy at a near-by resort hotel and the Thanksgiving buffet where we dine each year was especially good. I cooked the meals we all shared here at our home ahead of time and in concert with our daughter who lives in Austin. Yes, Thanksgiving was terrific but Christmas is joy. The children are older (aren't we all)! Gift giving is still front and center but Santa has taken a back seat. And the birth of baby Jesus can be celebrated in recognition of what it's really all about. May years ago, our son said, "What do you think of our coming to Austin for Thanksgiving every year and to Memphis for Christmas?" I confess I felt second place and not able to compete with all the Christmas excitement in Memphis. There were 11 little cousins all about...

"" My latest painting is entitled THINGS FLYING (20" x 20" oil on canvas) and it is another in the Nature and Geometry series. Another title might be "Freedom and Structure." Our Creative Workshop is having its last session Wednesday Nov. 14th. Laura and I are so proud of the work that the participants did. We produced a booklet of the stories and poems that were submitted to be included. The success of the group can be measured by their willingness to be vulnerable and by their support of one another. When one writes, paints or offers whatever they have created in the name of art, it is often difficult or downright scary. A book by David Bayles and Ted Orland, ART AND FEAR, addresses this. I recommend it to all who are beginning to make art. We are born creative but often our creativity is suppressed. We must find time to discover and a space to react to what we have seen and what we can know that wants to be expressed in whatever way we choose. In ou...

It's another image from my painting series NATURE AND GEOMETRY. I continue to explore geometric forms and nature using color repetition simple surfaces and clean negative space. I suppose the painting's title should be BEFORE THE LEAVES LEAVE, however I'm  leaving it untitled for now. (Pun intended) . Oil on canvas, 20" x 20". OCTOBER, MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR! It's wonderful everywhere. In Texas it's the end of oppressive heat. But I don't want to leave the impression that summer is awful. Given the choice, I choose summer over winter. October is the best with alternating days of warm and cool. October can bring rain and a spurt of fall growth. Until November, Texas hangs on to her green leaves. Then we are given a little color followed by the beautiful tracery of winter's bare branches. I suppose I like all the seasons and it's the change that invigorates me. I remember fondly an October Saturday long ago, basking in the warm sun on a ...

NATURE AND GEOMETRY is the theme, DARK TULIPS is the title of my latest 30" x 30" canvas. My challenge of choice is to marry these two interests, nature and geometry, in my painting compositions. I'm looking for design elements in ordinary subjects to enhance my drawing with rhythm, contrast, and repetition. Also looking for opportunities to inject my painting with greater freedom of color. (Perhaps I should have saved this painting for Halloween, the colors are right but it's not scary enough!) This painting was photographed on the exterior wall of my studio. For painters choosing to work in nature, my belief is that these studio exercises, requiring one to be very intentional about selection of color and shapes or geometry, will influence future compositions in a positive way. Like a musician practicing scales or a writer studying grammar, I believe all artists need to work on their skills. Daughter Laura Barrow and I will be leading a group at Good Shepherd E...

Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas                  No, NOT disappointed in Alice Walton's CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM despite some negative things we heard about the collection. We spent our first evening enjoying the architecture of MOSHE SAFDIE by walking from the entrance, down to the lake level and all around the complex. It is truly spectacular architecture. There are several comfortable places to rest and to enjoy the landscape or to look through numerous art books in shelves and on tables. For those wanting to do research there is an extensive and spacious  library on the upper floor. The next day we concentrated on the chronological collection by starting with the 20th century and traveling backwards to the beginning. WHY? Because the early American paintings, consisting of many portraits or our pinch-nosed founders can be difficult due to the vast numbers in the collection and because we have seen so many of...

This is to notify that I will be taking a break from blogging. Happy summer to all.

WHAT FUN !  I have just taken a trip to Arkansas prior to taking a trip to Arkansas...a Virtual Tour I have been looking forward to an evening at the GRACE MUSEUM in Abilene for the LOREN MOZLEY exhibition "Cross Currents - Three Generations of Artistic Influence", opening May 10th. From there we drive to Bentonville, Arkansas to see Alice Walton's CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM designed by MOSHE SAFDIE. But more about this next month. For now I want to extol the marvels of the internet and my virtual tour. Learning that we were going to Arkansas, Lu Ann Barrow (seated in the photo) encouraged us to see THORNCROWN, the important and remarkable chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I began my virtural journey by searching for the architect E. FAYE JONES, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. JONES's most well know structure is probably his THORNCROWN. Please go to www.thorncrown.com for more about this spectacular structure. Discovering THORNCROWN, I emaile...

CONSTRUCT #5 The image is of another CONSTRUCT (abstract designs were discussed more in last month's blog). This and other paintings from our SikesArt website were projected on two large screens for one of the continuing education sessions at the University of Texas.  At the invitation of Bob Coffee, my artist husband and I kicked off the "Austin Artists" series for Quest members on the U.T. Campus. QUEST is one of 4 very popular continuing ed programs at the University of Texas at Austin. LAMP, SAGE, QUEST AND FORUM were founded in that order.  All have a curriculum of a variety of subjects to interest their members who must be 55 years of age or older.  Several years ago we made a similar presentation to members of SAGE. To both groups I remarked that they were getting two painters for the price of one. To many it seems a curiosity that Charles and I are both painters.  We began  sharing our interest in art at age 14 when we were in high school...

I'm experimenting with color studies again which began as small collages. They always inform my landscape and nature paintings and are great fun to do.  I began doing these after reading the book JOSEF ALBERS: TO OPEN EYES. In an older post I produced images of my workbook and wrote about Albers (1888-1976). For more information, please go to www.carolesikes.blogspot.com and scroll to the bottom to click "older posts". Then scroll down to the paragraph entitled "Question and Answer" where I have written more about this important teacher and painter. A Russian painter KAZIMER MALEVICH (1878-1935) had a period, apart from his figurative paintings, creating what he called SUPREMATIST compositions which I found to be different yet similar to my "Constructs." Malevich's life and work was produced in a very turbulent period in Russia. There were many difficult influences in his life that gratefullly are missing in mine. But I share his interest in pro...

I'm hanging out in my Lake Travis studio, finding something else to say with drawings, color studies and abstract designs rather than making paintings on location. Last spring and summer it was the Texas heat and drought, then allergy season followed by intermittent cold, then windy, then muggy winter days. All of the above, not to mention that my portable easel and paints seem to be increasingly heavy in my advancing years, has confirmed my decision to give up painting en plein aire. Of course I reserve the right to change my mind. If you are a reader of www.carolesikes.blogspot.com and thinking of moving to Austin...DON'T. Not only are summers unbearable, but the traffic is impossible, stress provoking and can't be resolved because of the economy and the terrain of hills and lakes. However if you are here in Austin already, there are a many good things to do. AMOA-ARTHOUSE lists its events and exhibitions in the downtown location at Congress and 8th Street as "The...

STORY CORPS Never heard of it ?  Neither had I until my diughter Laura Barrow called to proposition me to be interviewed by her for this national non profit oral history project.  Since 2003 more than 30,000 interviews have been collected form all over the U.S. to be preserved at the American Folk Life Center in the Library of Congress. Story Corps' mobile taping booth is in Austin, TX for this month. So Laura and I made an appointment and went to the Bob Bullock State Museum where the Story Corps sound proof, state of the art recording booth is located in a tiny air stream trailer. For 40 minutes I answered her questions about growing up in Austin during World War II and about advice I might pass on to my grandchildren that included marriage, family, God and country. She directed and I rambled. Our photograph was taken by one of the two Story Corps staff persons and we were given a C.D. like the one to be archived in the Library of Congress. It was fun, pain...