You are invited to visit Kleinhelter Gallery next month to view LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY in New Albany, Indiana.
This collection of collage landscapes created en plein air makes its fourth appearance, and I’ll present my first multi-day workshop in June. Stop back here soon to learn more about these hands-on opportunities and to register for a spot. New Albany (just across the Ohio from Louisville) is a splendid destination. I hope you make plans to see these artworks in person!
“I don’t want a picture, I want a painting.”
— Raimonds Staprāns
Sometimes a day on location feels like “going to work in the morning again.” By the time I find a good spot to sit, everything changes. Being present in a natural place elicits the rapt attention that calls for the immediacy and spontaneity of painting from life. For me, it just happens to be paper and paste. That it would turn out this way is something I never could’ve predicted. Included here is my “start” from a recent outing to Marion County, Kentucky. In the studio (without a breeze), I shall add two round bales and the essential dose of March daffodils.
Looking East
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
10.125 x 7.75 inches, 2024
(appreciation to Rich Brimer at The Art Distillery)
“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
• S O L D
“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
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.
Apparently this is the way I look when I’m “in the zone.” Thanks to Joe F for the photo. Monday was a splendid day on the Knob, but a contrast from when I began a collage painting there a year ago. I could never bring myself to touch that “start” in the studio, so I decided to sit in the same spot and to pick up where I had left off. Now I’m finally eager to finish it inside without ruining it.
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!
“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.
