Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

     My husband Charles and I had our dual website updated, www.sikesart.com . Please check it out. This July blog image (below) is on my side of our website's home page along with one of the series of abstractions that Charles has been creating. To view more of our paintings click on either of our images to get into the other sections.      Charles is a modern man and does not attempt to make me invisible as was the plight for most professional women in the early 20th century and before. Currently in Paris through September 18th there is an exhibition of photographs and furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand. For 10 years during the 1930s, she was a co-creator with the famous architect Le Corbusier but stood in his shadow.  In 1900 in Scotland Charles Rennie Mackintosh married a gifted designer named Margaret Mcdonald. She suffered the same anonymity. As the saying goes, "Behind every great man sta...

As a member of Plein Air Austin, an organization of artists who paint on location around central Texas, I traveled to the Becker Vineyards between Stonewall and Fredericksburg . There were interesting buildings and good vistas even though the fields of lavendar had "gone by". As I was searching for something to paint the wind came up and this windmill began to turn and clatter. It got my attention!

The beginning strokes on a pristine canvas are always very exciting to me. I find it desirable but difficult to maintain the energy that is often evident in the early stages of a painting. This photo is included to demonstrate how I might start a painting. I was on location in the woods of North Carolina . The finished painting is the one apprearing above this photograph.