Hearrice Dixon's daughter gave her an artist's kit complete with canvas, brush and paints. That was the drive she needed to revive a love of painting that had been simmering since high school. Dixon will be the featured artist Sunday to May 1 at the Redlands Art Association gallery at 215 E. State St. A reception will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday for the show, which will include about a dozen paintings.

Dixon initially became engrossed in art after she won a worthy mention in the school contest, said Dixon, who studied art with Bernard Lowery at Redlands High School in the 1960s.Her family, had moved to Redlands from Louisiana when she was a teenager. Using oil paints at that time, Dixon worked in a special area her father set up for her in the family garage.

Dixon started using sponge to create special effects but now she creates whole canvases that way, said Dixon, 63. She is also learning to use brushes to create effects that are new to her style of painting. Acrylics are very liberal and you can paint over your mistakes, she said. Seascapes, landscapes and flowers are the subjects that attract Dixon the most. She has drawn inspiration from the work of famous American painter Winslow Homer. She love the soft, slight colors and am inspired to paint like that, she said.

Dixon doesn't sketches out her paintings ahead of time. Instead she draws with her eyes, she said of her work, which she labels non-emblematic. Viewers can draw their own conclusions as to what the paintings are, although she do gives them titles based on what she think they are, she said.

Labels: Arcylics, Art work, Bernard Lowery, Hearrice Dixon, Redlands Art Association

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Chicago artist Gladys Nilsson has been keeping active this winter, not only putting together a presentation of her 44 years as a painter, but also finding the time to help the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts select the best art in west Michigan.

They tried to select a show that would give that voice that there are a lot of things going on, Nilsson said.

Nilsson said she found it during sifting entries of those artists in the area that are not headed together in one direction. Rather, they are working alone and coming up with traditional and nontraditional uses of medium.

Nilsson is interested in considering what other people are doing and in Kalamazoo, the area definitely offers a lot of vibrant and energetic paintings, as well as some nice quiet passages too. There is room for everything, Nilsson said. Nilsson is a veteran juror, having lent her input in 1998 for a small format show.

Nilsson said the Kalamazoo art culture was very sturdy then and according to all of the slides that  she has gone over, it's is still very strong,

Nilsson reacts auspiciously, to any given set of stuff, but it has to reach out and grasp her, no matter what it is. If it doesn't do that it gets passed by, Nilsson said. She thinks about broad approval factor. When something talks to you, it doesn't make any difference whether it's the use of color, use of shape or an image you find that truly makes you vibrate.

Labels: Art work, Famous paintings, Gladys Nilsson, Kalmazoo Institude of Arts

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