Take a Hike!

Roxana Sinex

“Just for Fun” Oil and mixed Media 32” x 39”

Besides the encouragement to paint from her grandmother, Roxy’s parents always supported her love of art with a never-ending supply of drawing paper, crayons and pencils. 

Growing up with original artwork on the walls of her home, art was always an important part of Roxy’s life. In Junior High, despite the fact that she won the yearbook cover design contest, Roxy developed a distaste for art class. They were teaching how to draw and she grew bored and restless at the lack of challenge. She wanted to draw what interested her, which was primarily people, so that's what she did with a passion.

It was during this time that Roxy developed a great love for the spiritual and regenerative power of the wilderness due primarily to her family’s weekly hikes in the desert and mountains of Southern Arizona and the yearly two week long backpack trips led by her father in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The effects of these trips provided a profound influence on her artwork today.

In college, Roxy chose to major in Architecture because it provided her with the opportunity to have a career with a strong potential income along with the opportunity to draw all day. Additionally, Sinex had always been drawn to realism and architects draw realistically. Even when CADD became the norm for architectural drafting and design, Sinex continued drawing by hand because of her love for the process. She felt that the process of pencil drawing actually fed into the creativity of her award winning architectural designs.

"Take a Hike!"Oil and Mixed Media 32"x 39"

After taking her first figure painting class, Roxy switched back to the oils she grew up with for their creamy texture and blending ability. Soon after, she enrolled in a professional level class under the tutelage of nationally acclaimed artist David Zuccarini where one could paint whatever they wanted with a teacher/mentor to answer questions and make suggestions. Roxy soon became very involved in the Maryland art community, volunteering at art fundraisers, showing and winning awards throughout the state. She became active in Maryland Art League where she served as Vice President and then President, working to develop new shows and venues.

With the recession of 2008, came a decrease in demand for residential remodeling and custom homes giving Roxy the opportunity to open a small studio/gallery/artclassroom in a rennovated historic mill in downtown Savage, Maryland. This allowed her to paint, sell paintings and commissioned work, teach oil painting classes and still do architecture projects. In 2019, Sinex transitioned from her Maryland studio and architectural career to her lifetime dream, to become a full-time artist. 

With a move to Greenville, South Carolina, Roxy now works from her spacious home studio, selling her art both at Open Art Studios on Greenville’s award-winning Main Street and online at RoxanaSinexArt.com.

“Tea Time” Oil  11” x 26”

“Self Portrait” Acrylic 28” x42”

Roxana’s sensitive use of nature’s colors and strong compositional elements convey the intense beauty the artist sees in the world around her. Her paintings invite the viewer to walk down those mountain trails and explore a world that lies far from the hustle of everyday life.

As a child, Roxana (known by friends as Roxy) got started in art by drawing made-up story illustrations and paper dolls with her two sisters. In elementary school she was constantly drawing and doodling, getting in trouble from her teachers and winning acclaim as the best artist in the class by her classmates who would ask her to draw pictures for them. When she was ten, her family moved to Tucson, Arizona where her grandmother, a landscape painter in Ray, Arizona, taught her to paint and gave Roxy her first set of oil paints. 

“Coming Home” Oil 42” x28”

After college graduation and the subsequent pursuit for employment and family life, Roxy, her husband their three children settled down in Columbia, Maryland. Children and a full-time career as an architect brought a halt to Roxy’s oil painting for almost 15 years, though she continued to draw, drafting along with sketching the people around her.

With her career and family well established, Roxy began to feel the need to get back to the painting she loved. It was then that she saw a class in acrylic painting  offered at the local county art center. She signed up with the idea that acrylics would be safer to use around children and was soon rewarded with entry in her first art exhibition. Jennifer B.Scott in the Ellicott City Times referred to Roxy as an “upcoming artist”, featuring a 4" x 6" photograph of her painting and a brief interview, “I’ve never shown before and I aspire to be an artist who can actually sell paintings, says Roxana Sinex, a first-time exhibitor” quotes Scott.

She goes on to say, "Sinex’s painting, “Aspen Grove,” which depicts beatifully tall trees, exhibits her understanding of nature and the world." The painting sold before the show was over. 

“Aspen Grove” Acrylic 34” x24”

Although Sinex’s professional life was filled with drawing buildings, her artistic subject matter is all about life. “I paint what I love, people, trees, wildflowers, forest animals and  water”, says Sinex. Yet the architect is there. She organizes many of her paintings by integrating pieces of buildings such as old window sashes into her work. Other paintings, such as her large wildflower series and her squirrels and chipmunks serve as accent pieces to her primary work. But she always works at keeping in mind something that a client once asked for while commissioning a painting for her breakfast room, “I want bread and cheese and something to make me smile”.

Roxy did paint the painting as requested, adding in the client’s dog peeking over the edge of the table, very intently eyeing the big chunk of cheese. Afterwards, the client told her, “Whenever I look at that painting, I can't help smiling”. Roxy aspires to always keep this in mind as she paints. “Step into my painting, relax and when you leave, do it with a smile”.

Roxana Sinex Art                                              PO Box 31093                                                  Greenville, SC 29608                                              Phone:                                           Website: www.roxanasinexart.com                                  Email: roxana@roxanasinexart.com