In Paris, she took sketch classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and embraced the work of Henri Matisse, Constantin Brâncuși, and Pierre Bonnard.
Carles participated in the Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Showing the Later Tendencies in Art shown at PAFA in 1921, along with Thomas Hart Benton, Joseph Stella and Alfred Stieglitz, contributing a work entitled Study.
"[5] In 1926, Carles married Percival Craig Johns, who had also trained as an artist at PAFA and worked as a freelance illustrator for N.W.
Other artists represented included Isabel Bishop, Marsden Hartley, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Benton and Max Weber.
Johns also illustrated for Best & Co., Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, and through the Margaret Macy Advertising Agency, for several private clothing companies.
[9] She specialized in a technique of fluid, Matisse-like drawings done in black wax pencil and overlaid with a collage effect of photographed fabrics or clear colored acetate.
She drew from models, Lisa Fonssagrives, Judy Johnstone, Jackson Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner,[10] and her daughter, Adrian.
In 1948 she won the annual Fashion and Style Award from the Art Directors Club of New York for a cover illustration for Harper's Bazaar.