Nita Dixon: the paintings drive themselves

“The things that inspire me vary,” said Nita Dixon, a New Braunfels mixed media artist and painter who shows her work at Art on 12 in Wimberley. “Sometimes it’s landscapes or water or skies, and sometimes it’s shapes. For a while, I was consumed by the shape of old trucks until I finished studying it in my mind’s eye.”

“My mind will search out what I’m chasing at the time and then when I sit down to paint, it becomes the tree, sky or river of my imagination,” she continued. “It is a representation but isn’t realistic. Adding that extra idea or feeling into the work makes a difference.”

Dixon’s favorite part of creating a painting is composing the subject and finding the combination of colors that pleases her the most.

“Both of these things change as I go,” she said. “I may have started with one idea in mind, but it almost always changes. Once started, the paintings drive themselves.”

“It leaves me with some dead things along the way,” she added.

Once proficient in watercolor with experience using oils, the artist now works in a combination of media.

“I paint with acrylics and add highly colored and patterned paper into the composition,” she said. “I’m often after just the right pattern or color that the paper element delivers.”

Dixon acknowledged that her process can be driven and emotional.

“I always have something going and I go to bed thinking about the components I want to include. While working on the piece, my mind searches for what I want to do next and where I could go. The main idea continues to be shaped as I work,” she continued. “Sometimes I’ll get hung up and it makes a terrible difference in my mood.”

While she majored in art in college, and taught school for some years, Dixon laid her paints aside until she retired from the retail world. For the last eight years, she has been painting full time.

When asked if she has ever experienced a dry spell, Dixon replied, “Yes, and it’s a terrible thing. For me, the only way to fight one off is to

work through it. I just keep working.”

Even though unfinished work gets set aside, “It is important to keep at it,” she said.

Dixon’s work can be seen at the Art on 12 Gallery located at 13811 Ranch Road 12, she also shows her work at the Carriage House Gallery in Boerne. For more information, her at ndixon1000@yahoo. com.