Today we’d like to introduce you to Sybil Hill Carter.
Sybil, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My relationship with art began early. I grew up in Dallas, Texas, surrounded by museums, galleries, and a father who painted. He was a self-taught abstract painter whose work was exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art, and I grew up painting with him, studying with him, and learning from his independent creative spirit. In many ways, he was my first mentor.
As a young woman, I worked as an international fashion model alongside my twin sister, traveling through Europe and living in Puerto Rico for a time. While in Old San Juan, I studied sculpture at the Liga de Arte de San Juan and worked as an artist assistant at Jan D’Esopo Gallery. Those experiences with art, fashion, travel, color, and culture shaped the way I see the world.
Over the years, I built a professional life in the arts while raising my daughter. My paintings have been exhibited in galleries throughout Colorado and the West and are held in private, corporate, and international collections. From 2020 to 2025, my twin sister and I co-owned Gallery 101 in Basalt, Colorado, a riverfront gallery where we exhibited our original work.
Today, I am based in Carbondale, Colorado, where I work from my home studio and draw inspiration from the rivers, gardens, mountain valleys, and changing light around me. My current work is focused on intimate oil landscapes, created both outdoors and in the studio.
I am also continuing my plein-air studies in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a place my husband and I have returned to for many years with our dogs. The coastal light and plein-air tradition there feel like a natural extension of my Colorado landscape work. This chapter feels both like a return and a beginning: a lifetime in art distilled into paintings of the natural world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Every artist’s path has its challenges, but I consider myself fortunate. My career has been shaped more by growth and reinvention than by major setbacks.
One of the greatest challenges has been balancing my creative life with raising a family while continuing to build a professional career. I learned that there are seasons in life, and each one has influenced the way I paint. Rather than seeing those changes as interruptions, I have come to appreciate them as part of my artistic development.
Another challenge has been knowing when to let go of what is comfortable in order to grow. Over the years, I have explored different subjects, materials, and ways of working. Most recently, after co-owning a gallery with my twin sister, I chose to simplify my practice and return to what has always inspired me most: painting landscapes in oil. That decision has led me toward a more focused and meaningful body of work.
At 61, I still feel like a student of nature. Whether I am walking with my dog along a river in Colorado or watching the changing light on the California coast, I am constantly learning. That sense of curiosity keeps my work evolving and reminds me that every new chapter brings fresh opportunities to grow as both an artist and a person.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a contemporary American landscape painter based in Carbondale, Colorado. I work primarily in oil, creating intimate landscapes inspired by the changing light, quiet beauty, and emotional presence of the natural world.
My work is rooted in observation, memory, and place. I am especially drawn to rivers, gardens, mountain valleys, open land, and the atmosphere of the West. I also have a deep connection to Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Central Coast, where I am continuing my plein-air studies and developing work inspired by the meeting of land, ocean, and coastal light.
I have had a long professional life in the arts. My paintings have been exhibited in galleries throughout Colorado and the western United States, including Aspen, Vail, Beaver Creek, Basalt, Park City, Jackson Hole, Sedona, and Carmel-by-the-Sea. They are held in private, corporate, and international collections throughout the United States and abroad.
I am proud that art has supported many seasons of my life—as a painter, gallery co-owner, mother, businesswoman, and lifelong student of beauty. From 2020 to 2025, I co-owned Gallery 101 in Basalt, Colorado, with my twin sister, where we exhibited our original work in a riverfront gallery setting.
What sets my work apart is the combination of spiritual connection and professional experience. I see painting as a way of being present with nature, almost like visual journaling. At the same time, I understand art as a business. I care about quality, presentation, collectors, and creating paintings that people want to live with in their homes.
I am most proud of building a life in art that reflects love, family, discipline, generosity, and independence. My current landscape work brings all of that together in a quieter, more refined way.
How do you think about happiness?
Happiness, for me, has always been a state of mind and a path I try to follow. Since I was young, I have been drawn to the question of how I want to live, what I want to create, and how I want to grow as a person.
I find happiness in simple, meaningful things: prayer, beautiful music, nature, healthy food, yoga, walking outdoors with my dog, and being at home surrounded by the landscape I love. I feel closest to God in nature — in the fresh morning air, the gardens, the rivers, the mountains, and the quiet beauty that surrounds my home in Colorado.
Art has also been one of my greatest sources of happiness. As a single mother, creating and selling my paintings allowed me to be home with my daughter, pick her up from school, and build a life around both love and independence. I have always felt blessed that art gave me not only a creative path, but also a professional and financial foundation.
Today, happiness is waking up with a cup of tea, looking out at the garden, walking outside, painting near my easel, and knowing I have the freedom to live according to the values I have built around me. Seeing my daughter follow her own creative and independent path brings me deep joy as well.
For me, happiness is a combination of faith, family, nature, health, creativity, and freedom. Painting brings all of those things together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://SybilHillCarter.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sybil.hillcarter
