“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”
— Abraham Lincoln
I did not create anything specific for July’s 250th commemoration of the Declaration, but I figured I should finish off a plein air collage piece that I started during the summer of 2025. I put final touches on Tower of Boyle for OBSERVING LIGHT, the current exhibition by our Plein Air Artists of Central Kentucky at Art Center of the Bluegrass in downtown Danville. If you are in the area, I hope you get to see the show!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Tackling our courthouse tower with collage proved a bit tricky after I found a spot to sit on Main Street. The noise and truck exhaust was more unpleasant than I expected. At any rate, I blocked it out and sketched enough detail to give me a fighting chance in the studio. “Gimme that countryside!”
I have not typically interpreted local landmarks and historical architecture, but I challenged myself with this distinctive cupola when the PAACK gathered in downtown Danville. The Boyle County Courthouse has an interesting story. It was completed during the Civil War and almost immediately became a hospital for casualties from the Battle of Perryville. Because the backyard of our home and studio adjoins the Courthouse boundary, we have lived in the shadow of its familiar clock tower since 1990. Perhaps it is just me, but something seems fitting about adding this to my paper creations during the year that America celebrates an important anniversary of its founding document, since so many people were caught up in a battle to determine its promise for Kentucky and the Union. Some of the wounded soldiers survived with the care they received beneath the Boyle icon, and others died there, so far from their own homes. Abe’s peculiar wartime remark provides a hint of how vital the border state of Kentucky was to the effort, and the men on both sides of the bloody conflict near Danville surely knew it. Over a thousand of them paid with their lives.
Tower of Boyle
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
6.25 x 8.375 inches
available for purchase