“Sometimes a man humbles himself in his heart, submits the visible to the power to see, and seeks to return to his source.”
— René Daumal
This small landscape found its start a year ago during one of my library demonstrations. I finished it from imagination in the studio this past week after a season of “painting in papers” outside.
La Monda’s Refuge
collage on canvas by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
“Dixon hopes his students will share the belief that Kentucky’s landscapes need its inhabitants’ care and attention to preserve the space for generations to come.”
— Lilly Keith
What a surprise to have something happen with which I had no initiating role! Students at the University of Kentucky’s lifestyle magazine made an editorial decision to include my LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY traveling exhibition in an article to showcase artwork created from repurposed material. Much appreciation to Lilly Keith and Alexis Baker for their contributions! (And thanks again to the PAACK member who provided this image of me “painting in papers” on location.)
K R N L – Lifestyle + Fashion
featuring the LKY theme: seeing our landscape in a new light
Up the Channel
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
art size: 9.25 x 7.375 inches
framed: 16.75 x 13.75 inches
available to collectors
“This year has been the biggest one yet for the Contemporary Collage Magazine Awards. We received almost two thousand entries across all six categories and the calibre of work has been outstanding.”
— Les Jones and Molly Campbell
Delighted to announce that my collage landscapes have earned international recognition from Contemporary Collage Magazine, with a Bronze Award in the Nature Series category. The jurors also placed my LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY artworks in the overall “Series Shortlist.” The England-based publication has set an impressive standard for worldwide coverage of our artistic medium. My thanks to the panel of judges, with congratulations to fellow award winners, including friends Teri Dryden, Allan Bealy, and Robert Voigts.
It is gratifying not only to have my particular area of concentration gain recognition, but for it to be in the context of a wider acknowledgment of representational collage as a vital approach to the medium. I give great credit to CCMag for their ongoing salute to “collage as painting,” and to all the 2024 competition adjudicators.
Above Curtis Road
Boyle County, Kentucky
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
11 x 8 inches
part of the LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY collection
giclée print available
It’s November! I’m pleased to share a notice for SMALL WORKS and that my collage landscapes will be a part of this group exhibition at Kleinhelter Gallery in New Albany, Indiana.
Although I aspire to create landscapes outside into the colder months, my season seems to be winding down. The number of unfinished artworks has become a significant backlog, so I shall be boosting my finishing hours in the studio. The ongoing challenge for me is always to preserve with minimal refinements the collage improvisations that I achieve en plein air.
Spent a chunk of September “painting in papers” while in the Les Cheneaux Islands. This recent method of pasting collage ingredients over a crude charcoal sketch really started to grow on me.
Here is an interim stage of completion for “Up the Channel.” The water foreground needs to be finished and softened. The shoreline can benefit from a few more details. Please stand by for the final version!
My sincere thanks to Brett Smith and Diane Dehoney for bringing this media coverage to YouTube and for promoting the show at Paul Sawyier Public Library. My collage landscapes infused with litter are on display in Frankfort for three more weeks.
“The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent…. You can’t just throw a paint brush against the wall and call whatever happens art.”
— Duke Ellington
There are so many old farmhouses and barns in our Knobland region of Kentucky, and they always hold my rapt attention as I interpret them in found papers. It is necessary, however, for me to quiet my busy mind and discover a soul connection to a particular natural place and the evident stewardship of those who have cared for it. Then, and only then, can I apply an intent to coax my intuition in an expected direction and to handle paper and paste with creativity.
I am pleased with what I achieved on the top half of this small canvas. The foreground is now due for an efficient studio finish.
Check out my series of posts that have described a seven-year plein air adventure, “painting in papers.”
At Walnut Springs (unfinished)
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
on stretched canvas, 10 x 8 inches
Plein Air Artists of Central Kentucky
My solo show of collage landscapes stays on the road — this time at the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort. The exhibition lasts through September 23, and I am present for a gallery talk on August 20 at 6pm.
“The spirit laughs at man’s concern with the form of Art, with new expression because the old is outworn! It is man’s own poverty of vision yielding him nothing, so that to save himself he must trick out in new garb the old, old commonplaces, or exalt to be material for art the hitherto discarded trivialities of the mind.”
— Rockwell Kent
I guess it was only a matter of time before I represented in papers the Kentucky icon of our vanishing small farm economy. It took me longer than usual to pick a spot to sit and paste papers during my visit to Daycrest Farm. With the help of Jason, one of the hospitable owners, I found a scene at the back of the acreage. I didn’t know what I was looking for, and I had to shake off the impulse to make another try at summer blossoms in the commercial flower gardens near the highway. I listened to myself thinking, “Haven’t you done this kind of view before? What do you expect to discover?”
The PAACK “Art Out” turned out to be beneficial for me because I approached what appeared to be an “already done that” rural setting with everything I’ve learned about “painting in papers.” After an insane timetable during the recent plein air challenge in Lexington, it was nice to tear and glue at my typical snail’s pace. Amusingly, the tobacco barn seems to levitate in my first interim image. Although content with the day’s work, there were too many spots that needed attention, so I couldn’t declare the collage finished when back in the studio. Minute subtleties like barn ventilators, fence posts, and complex foliage details are difficult ingredients to manage outdoors with even the mildest of breezes (which are most welcome when highs are in the mid 90s).
My love for books prohibits me from destroying useful ones for art. I only cannibalize ruined ones. I typically ignore the literal language and include it for pattern and texture, but in this piece I became a bit attached to what the fragments of sentences actually said. It’s interesting to probe the effect of linguistic connotations, whether or not the meaning can be discerned. My inclusion of “manipulated” verbal content has become so complicated that it’s hard to explain, even in a workshop context. At any rate, I like to remind viewers that it is, after all, a collage.
I am rather pleased with this landscape, and I hope it lands with a person who wants to live with it!
Tobacco Crest
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
12 x 9 inches + wood frame, crafted by the artist
• S O L D
