Friends of the Coastal Branch Library announced that their featured artist for the month of August is Carol Dickson. Her works will be on display throughout the month.

Carol and her husband, Rob, moved to Santa Rosa Beach from the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 2001. In Maryland, Carol had a hobby that turned into a thriving business, weaving handmade baskets.

Carol has been weaving for over 30 years with reed, grapevines and pine needles. Basket classes are usually held once or twice a month in towns from Crestview to Rosemary Beach. Dickson is still as excited about weaving now as she was when creating her first basket in North Carolina in 1983.

In 2005, Carol took her first watercolor class in Destin.

“When I walked out with a completed painting at the end of the first class, I was hooked,” she recalls.

Watercolor painting has since become a passion in her life and has redirected her artistic path, proving that it is never too late to try something new. Recently, Dickson was invited to teach basket and watercolor classes at the Piasa Chautauqua in Illinois.

Dickson continues to take classes to learn more about color, techniques and style. She is a member of the Cultural Arts Alliance, Women’s Art Network and several painting groups. She also sells her baskets and watercolor note cards in local shops in Navarre, Destin and Santa Rosa Beach.

Carol teaches watercolor classes at the Bayou Arts Center every Wednesday from noon until 3 pm.

“We have fun trying different techniques such as painting with the non-dominant hand, finding value using one color in the entire painting, and on occasion we have painted paintings in 10 minutes with no drawing to increase the students ability to paint loosely,” said Dickson.

For more info, visit Carol’s website or call 850-622-0209. For info about classes at the Bayou Arts Center, call 850-622-5970.