Rocks, bottles, pumpkins all serve as a canvas for Dundas artist

Dundas artist Carol Van Sickle doesn’t remember a time in her seven decades of life when she wasn’t drawing and painting.

Despite recovering from a stroke she suffered two years ago, Van Sickle is back at her drawing board working on various art projects. After retiring in 2008, creating art has been her mainstay.

“I have a busy brain,” she explained. “Art gives me peace. Time goes by so fast when I paint.”

Whether she’s painting portraits of classmates who died for her recent Northfield High School 60th class reunion or painting faces on pumpkins, or painting designs on wine bottles and old farm saws or painting dog faces on smooth stones, Van Sickle produces art nearly every day.

Van Sickle, who has worked as a graphic artist, a beauty operator and a book illustrator, recently sold some of her latest art collectables at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show.

Audrey Helbling, an admirer of Van Sickle’s talent, visited with Van Sickle at the Steam & Gas Engines Show and thought Van Sickle’s story would be interesting to readers mainly because of the artist’s generosity in giving back to her community.

“I was impressed by her work; she does animals, landscapes, portraits and vehicles,” wrote Heibling in an email. “But one thing in particular stood out: She gives some of her rock art to a local doctor, who in turn, gives it to her pediatric patients.”

After her stroke, Van Sickle said she’s made a lot of progress through physical therapy. “I couldn’t talk,” she said. “Now, I still can’t find some words, but I’ve made a lot of improvement.”

Van Sickle said she feels fortunate she can still paint. “I was lucky that I didn’t lose all that when I had a stroke,” she said.

While her crafts are mostly all for sale, Van Sickle does give much of her art away for free. About once a month, she delivers a box of painted stones to her doctor at Allina Health Care, the physician who has helped her recover after the stroke. A box filled with whimsically painted smooth stones stood next to her painting desk.

“I also give away God rocks,” she said. “These are rocks that people are supposed to share with others.” Jesus died for them, so they are meant to inspire hope, love and support. Many of stones are painted with the saying “I am your rock.”

She also gives away special rocks featuring images of babies and storks to new mothers at Northfield Hospital + Clinics.

Van Sickle said she’s found people are the hardest images to paint on a rock, so she has focused mainly on dogs and cats, although long-haired cats can be more difficult to capture.

She said she sells her individualized stone pet portraits mostly through email orders with customers sending her photos of their pets. She also gets requests from people to paint landscapes with farm buildings, tractors, cattle, sheep, horses and ducks on milk cans or on old farm saws.

Van Sickle’s lighted wine bottles have been a popular sale item priced at $20 each for many years at L & M Bar & Grill in Dundas, which is owned by her daughter.

Van Sickle said she likes to draw religious portraits, particularly of Jesus, as well as portraits of her favorite singer Elvis Presley, many iterations of which hang on the walls of her wood paneled T.V. room.

She also likes to create gifts for Halloween and Christmas. “I’m pretty much a copyist,” she said. “Show me a photo and I can copy it.”