Archive for the ‘Collage’ Category
The genre is ever with us to explore
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025“I called it Merz. This new process whose principle was the use of any material. It was the second syllable of Kommerz. It first appeared in Merzbild, a painting in which, apart from its abstract forms, one could read Merz, cut and pasted from an advertisement for Kommerz und Privatbank. I was looking for a term to designate this new genre, for I could not classify my paintings under old labels such as expressionism, cubism, futurism, and so on.”
— Kurt Schwitters
Mere Scrupulosity
collage miniature on canvas panel
8 x 10 inches, in the Merz tradition
our living landscape . . .
Friday, January 31st, 2025“The landscapes that I choose to paint are tied by a common thread, a sense of nostalgia, a setting that at once is current, but also captures a sense of the (Sacramento) valley that hasn’t changed for many years. I believe that landscapes live in us.”
— Phil Gross
While away from the studio, with limited collage ingredients, I made a miniature copy of a splendid oil painting by Phil Gross. I’ll probably add a few finishing touches and then decide if it’s appropriate to sign it. This turned out to be a very different kind of exercise than any other paper landscape that I’ve done. My thanks to Rowland William Breidenbach for the opportunity to spend time with this landscape.
California Theme (after Phil Gross)
unfinished collage landscape by J A Dixon
10 x 8 inches
Thursday, January 16th, 2025
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)
Saturday, December 28th, 2024
Nine segments from 2024 artworks of which I am still fond — aesthetic beauty within the Merz tradition continues to wrestle pictorial collage for my attention. Which approach do you favor in the coming year?
CLOCKWISE TO CENTER:
La Monda’s Refuge, Wind Harbor, Our Lady of the Cheap Shot, April Burst, Down Side Up, Unprotected Speech, War and Peace, Maybeland, Up the Channel
KRNL covers LKY . . .
Tuesday, December 17th, 2024“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
No charge for shipping!
Friday, December 13th, 2024
Dozens of collage miniatures are available for you to buy directly through this website, all in standard formats for framing.
~ click here ~
Let me know if you have any questions about these original artworks!
Discover CAMP!
Monday, December 9th, 2024The most unique shop in downtown Danville will be open all Mondays before Christmas. ’Tis the season to visit. You’ll find my wood engravings, collage landscapes, and many other distinctive discoveries!
2024 CCMag Awards!
Friday, November 8th, 2024“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
Mirthiness
Saturday, September 7th, 2024“The first step is always to succeed in becoming surprised.”
— David Gelernter
I still find it rewarding to work very small, and to have an image of the finished miniature appear to be a larger-scale original. Yes, I know. It doesn’t take much to entertain a collage artist in the studio.
Mirthiness
collage on book cover by J A Dixon
7 x 5 inches
available for purchase
Evolving creative intent with similar subjects
Friday, August 30th, 2024“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