Color and texture define the work of painter and photographer Mary Montague Sikes. Growing up in Fredericksburg, she adored new crayons and classroom art. While earning a degree in psychology at the University of Mary Washington, she took art classes as electives. She later received an art teaching license at the College of William and Mary, where she discovered sculpture and acrylic paints. Working both in oil and acrylics, she earned an MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University.

 

An award-winning artist and author, Sikes has exhibited nationally and internationally and has taught students on all levels from kindergarten to college. Her photographs and articles have been published in many newspapers and magazines throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

 

Each year she enjoys taking workshops with well

known artists, including Mary Ann Beckwith, Mary Alice Braukmann, Robert Burridge, Janet Rogers, Pat Dews, Elaine Harvey, and others. Over the years, painters Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, and sculptor Henry Moore have influenced her work.

 

The College of William and Mary Law Library, NationsBank, Crestar Bank, Philip Morris, Riverside Women's Health (Williamsburg), Super Clubs (Kingston, Jamaica), National Museum of Women in the Arts, One Capitol Square (Richmond), Media General are among public and private collections that include her work.

 

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