Vicki Carstens

Hi, I'm Vicki Carstens

I started my formative years in Southern California growing up primarily under my grandmothers wing in her small cafe where I spent a good deal of my time being under foot.

One of our favorite customers came in one day and must have felt sorry for my apparent boredom...or it may have been my grandma....and patiently taught me how to draw a rose. I was just six years old...that moment is crystal clear in my memory and it was the golden (or in this case a No.2 soft lead pencil) key that opened my overwhelming passion for art.

I won my first art contest in high school and since that time I have had the honor to win many awards for both amateur and professional categories. Best of show in large works and the Grumbacher Bronze Medallion are two of my top awards in the category of oil on canvas. The California Mountain Man claimed both those honors in 1982.

I was never able to accomplish a degree in art but have had many college and private courses in my lifetime.

Over the years I have explored many media. My favorite (most fun) is clay and oil.

Currently I have been exploring the beauty of copper and stone combined to create a unique piece of jewelry to worn as a pendant.

This is not the original painting..the guys who worked with the man I painted wanted to get it for him as a Retirement gift. Long long story on how they tracked me down.In the end the owner of the original didn't want to sell it so I sent them a 35 mil slide I still had! They then had it printed on canvas and waaa laaa