Location: United States
From her first visit to the Caribbean, award-winning artist and author Mary Montague Sikes has been enchanted with the islands. Her love of the tropics inspired her to set her first novel, Hearts Across Forever, in Jamaica. Because of Sikes’ fascination with exotic destinations, her publisher created the Passenger to Paradise series for some of her books. She is author of seven novels and five non-fiction books, including Hotels to Remember, a coffee-table art book.
A Fredericksburg, Virginia native, Sikes is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. Following her love of art, she studied painting and sculpture at the College of William and Mary and earned a MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. She maintains studio/galleries at Petersburg Regional Art Center in Petersburg and has been featured in numerous one-woman shows in the United States and Canada. A freelance writer and photographer as well as artist and book author, Sikes presents programs for art, writing, and civic organizations.
For more information on Sikes, her books and art, please visit http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com and www.marymontaguesikes.com .
Her latest Passenger to Paradise novel, Jungle Jeopardy, is a sequel to Secrets by the Sea and features adventures among the lost ruins of the Maya in Central America. An exhibition of her large Maya Ruins paintings is currently on view in Gallery One at Crossroads Art Center, 2016 Staples Mill Road in Richmond, Virginia.
RUINS OF LONG AGO – THE MAYA - Acrylic Paintings by Mary Montague Sikes
Winds brush thick jungle leaves
In the mist rocky façades glow
The air sighs with sounds of the past
And ancient Mayan whispers blow.
When artist Mary Montague Sikes first saw the Mayan ruins at Palenque, the sight of gray stone structures rising in the mist held her in awe. In the jungle quiet her imagination ran wild. She walked as if caught up in a dream where ghostly shadows rise from dark corners. Even the rocks held strange images, and she recalls that sounds sighed like ancient voices crying from the sprawling, broken buildings. Mountains of heavy foliage reached out from the hiding places of the long-lost edifices now being uncovered and revealed.
Across a broad expanse of green grasses, the Temple of the Inscriptions rose as the focal point for visitors to the long-lost ruins. She could not resist the urge to record the amazing sight of this structure. Many other images beckoned her and demanded a painterly description of rocky broken ledges and ancient portals. These paintings became the beginning of her Maya Ruins series.
Exhibition is on view at Crossroads Art Center, 2016 Staples Mill Rd., Richmond, VA May 18 - July 10. WTVR Richmond TV show link: http://wtvr.com/2012/05/17/virginia-this-morning-mayan-ruins-of-long-ago/
72 by 42 inches
acrylic/canvas
$2000
42 x 30 inches
acrylic/canvas
$1600
48 x 72 inches
acrylic/canvas
$2400
“A Vision Beyond”
“Portal to a Temple”
“Temple of the Inscriptions”
