Maynard Dixon is one of the most important painters of the American West. His painting is founded in his deep understanding of Native cultures and the land on which which they lived. He introduced modernism to Western painting. His compositions were powerful in design, color and expression. He distilled large skies with flowing cloud formations over the low horizons of the landscape. His visual poetry helped reinvigorate interest in paintings of the West.

Sagebrush and Solitude: Maynard Dixon in Nevada examines Dixon's paintings in or near Nevada over a period of nearly 40 years.

Dixon was born and raised on a ranch near Fresno. At the age of 16, he was encouraged by artist Frederic Remington "to draw from nature." Briefly in 1893, he attended the California School of Design in San Francisco. There he became a life-long friend of his classmate, James Swinnerton. Both Dixon and Swinnerton were noticed by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst who put the two young artists to work.

Both were successful, but city life didn't suit Maynard well. He often felt the need to get out of San Francisco and head for wilder places. He wanted to capture the beauty of open spaces with his drawings, his paintings and his poems.

In 1901, twenty-six year old Maynard Dixon and his artist friend Edward Borein, who was three years older, set out on a daring artistic adventure. They left from Oakland on horseback with the goal to tour the Great Basin and paint as they went. They had no specific geographic destination in mind. Their goal was to listen to and explore their inner artistic voices.

They left Oakland with six horses, camping equipment, and art supplies. They ascended the Sierra, climbing up the same route as today's Highway 50. They arrived in Carson City, Nevada, eleven days later, and eventually reached Reno which Dixon dismissed, later writing it was "dreary and of no account."

They continued on to Modoc and Lassen Counties in California and then on to Harney County in Southeastern Oregon. By the end of the summer of 1901, Dixon and Borein reached Boise, Idaho. By that time, they had created countless sketches and paintings.

But the adventure was wearing on them. They were subsisting on an occasional jackrabbit and cornmeal biscuits. Dixon wrote to a friend at the time, "We have been stalled here (in Boise) for a week with sick horses." So, the pair of artists decided to end their adventure. The sold their tired horses, made their way back to Salt Lake City and then rode the rails back to San Francisco.

To an outside observer, it might have seemed as if Maynard's and Edward's art expedition was a grand waste of time, energy and money. But for Dixon, the country he saw and his experiences fed his imagination and fired his creative spirit the rest of his life. This trip was the first of many trips to paint the beauty of Nevada.

Early in 1905, thirty-year-old Maynard Dixon and his Bohemian Club friend Xavier Martinez went on a painting trip to Guadalajara. On their return, Maynard met and married Lillian West Toby in Los Angeles. In April of 1906, the San Francisco Earthquake was hard on Dixon. He, like much of San Francisco's artistic community, lost his studio and many of his paintings and drawings.

In 1908, he moved to New York where he jump started his illustration work. He became a good friend of Ashcan School painter Robert Henri. Although New York was good for Dixon financially, his marriage to Lillian was deteriorating due to Lillian's alcoholism and, once again, he was feeling a longing to return to the great open spaces of the West.

In 1917, Maynard and Lilllian finally were divorced. He was suffering from asthma and bouts of self doubt and depression. Again, to find solace, Dixon headed for the wilds of the American West. Having revived his spirits, he returned to San Francisco. In 1920, at age 45, he met and married photographer Dorothea Lange. They were introduced by a mutual friend, photographer Imogen Cunningham. Together, the artistic couple became central to San Francisco's inner circle of writers and artists. But Lange soon observed first hand Dixon's need to routinely escape the city for his artistic spirit to remain vital. She recalled, " ... he was always going for a month or six weeks, but he would never come back inside four months. His trips were practically disappearances as far as San Francisco life was concerned. He was just either there, or he was gone."

When he returned to his San Francisco studio, he painted many more canvases inspired by this Nevada trip. This series of paintings was increasingly influenced by the principles of modernism. He would intentionally eliminate unnecessary details while employing a limited color palette. He emphasized underlying geometric structure of the landscape resulting in paintings which were visual poetry.

One of Maynard Dixon's favorite destinations was the Eastern Sierra, especially near Lone Pine, not far from the Alabama Hills and Mount Whitney. He would stay with friends from his early San Francisco art school days, Bill and Charlotte Skinner. Together, they would go into the local wilds for painting excursions. At times, Dorothea Lange would join them with other artist friends, print maker Roi Partridge and photographer Imogen Cunningham. Maynard also explored the nearby wonders of the Owens Valley, the Amargosa Desert, the Inyo Mountains and the Coso Range

In Ansel Adams' 1996 autobiography, he writes about the artistic community in San Francisco during the 1920's. Of Maynard Dixon, Adams wrote, "Dorothea Lange's first husband was painter Maynard Dixon. He was very creative and, to say the least, individualistic. The West was his spiritual domain. He loved the Indians and the cattlemen and, above all, the country. He painted simple, stylized, and heroic images of the West, some of which have great beauty and power.

"He did not receive the support due him from the intelligentsia of San Francisco. What bothered Dixon was not the qualities of good modern art, but the assumption that all avant-garde art was de facto superior".

Maynard Dixon was fascinated by trees. Portraits of trees became a fixture in many of his paintings. In the parched high desert, trees were usually found along springs and waterways. As summer turns to autumn and frosty nights arrive, the cottonwood tree's foliage turns from bright green to rich yellow and gold, with the glowing trees visible from a great distance.

Later in 1934, Dixon spent a month at the construction site of Boulder Dam, now commonly known as Hoover Dam. There, he told the incredible visual story of men working to transform nature.

Like most observers at the time, he was amazed by the very concept of building such a large dam. He tried to picture "flesh and blood men" who were dwarfed by the landscape they were laboring to tame.

At the same time, he remained true to the immense beauty and bold nature of the mountains and cliff walls surrounding the great dam.

Maynard Dixon, Hemingway Wash (Boulder, NV) 1934, collection of Michael and Karen Edson

Photo of Maynard Dixon with steer's skull

In 1935, Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange divorced. Afterward, Maynard arranged for the sale of 85 paintings, drawings and sketches to Brigham Young University. Once the sale was completed, he met and married San Francisco painter, portraitist and muralist Edith Hamlin in 1937. The couple married in Carson City, in a brief ceremony on the veranda of the Bliss Mansion. They stayed in a small cottage, spending time sketching and painting. They also visited the Washoe Valley, Virginia City and Dayton.

Dixon was suffering from emphysema. His symptoms worsened and the couple headed for Los Angeles seeking medical treatment. Although Maynard didn't know it at the time, he would never return to Nevada again.

James Swinnerton 1875-1974 was the Dean of the California Desert School. He first came to the California Desert as a 30 year-old. After having been a successful newspaper cartoonist in New York for 12 years, James was given a death sentence - he had tuberculosis. His boss, William Randolph Hearst, put Swinnerton on a train for the California desert. There he thrived and lived to be 98 years old.

He remained active as a cartoonist most of his career, but was a serious painter of desert landscapes throughout the Southwest, with many works of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. A major theme in his paintings is how beautifully green life exists and thrives in this vast parched and beautiful landscape. He maintained a presence in the San Francisco Bay area with a home in Palo Alto. He was a member of the Boheminan Club.

Robert Rishell 1917-1976 was a co-founder of the Oakland Museum and was active in the Bay Area art scene his entire life. He studied art with Xavier Martinez and was influenced by desert painters James Swinnerton and John W. Hilton. Robert's notoriety brought with it an invitation to become a member of the Bohemian Club. Robert's daughter told us that Robert truly enjoyed attending the Club's encampments at the Bohemian Grove where his tentmates included Edgar Bergen the ventriloquist and Herman Wouk the author. In 1974, Robert was commissioned to paint the gubernatorial portrait of Ronald Reagan, which hangs above the grand staircase in the Capitol Building in Sacramento.

Clyde Forsythe 1885-1962 has deep western roots. His parents ran a general store in Tombstone, Arizona, right next door to the OK Corral. Clyde attended the Art Students League in New York and worked with The New York Journal, a Hearst Newspaper where he worked with an artist who became a life-long friend, James Swinnerton. As the United States entered World War I, Clyde created many War Department recruitment posters which are now famous. In New Rochelle, New York, Clyde shared a studio with fellow artist Norman Rockwell. Clyde was gregarious while Norman was quite shy. Clyde encouraged Norman to submit his portfolio to the Saturday Evening Post. When Clyde relocated to the desert, his personal friends included Maynard Dixon, Ed Borein, Nicolai Fechin, John W. Hilton, humorist Will Rogers and animation filmmaker Walt Disney.

Gordon Coutts 1886-1937 was a successful painter on four continents! He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, studied in Paris, taught and was an active artist in Australia and later in California. In the Bay Area, he lived in the Piedmont section of Oakland and was a member of the Bohemian Club. After his divorce from his artist wife Alice in 1918, he traveled to North Africa where he painted exotic landscapes and portraits. After returning to the Bay Area from Africa, Coutts developed tuberculosis and moved to the California desert near Palm Springs. He designed and built a North-African styled castle which he named Dar Marroc. He entertained many celebrities there such as Errol Flynn and Rudolph Valentino, and guest artists included Grant Wood, Nicolai Fechin and Sir Winston Churchill. Today, his Palm Springs home is named Korakia and is a high-end desert resort.

John W. Hilton 1804-1983 liked to think of himself as a self-taught artist. He never attended a formal art school. But in the back room of his gem shop and personal art gallery, he was taught by his artist friends. His back room housed perhaps the most prestigous private art school of all times. His faculty of personal friends included James Swinnerton, Maynard Dixon, Clyde Forsythe and the great Russian painter Nicolai Fechin. John was an active member of the California Desert painting community and he might well be called the Social Director of the Desert School. He was a regular contributing writer and artist for Desert Magazine in Palm Desert, and arranged countless painting excursions with fellow artists.

Ralph Love 1907-1992 was a beloved artist and art teacher who spent most of his career painting and teaching in eastern Orange County in the town of Temecula. He is most noted for his spectacular paintings of the Grand Canyon and of Monument Valley. His works were in prestigeous collections. Senator Barry Goldwater, well known for his art collection, said of Ralph Love, "he is the finest living American artist in know, and I could look at his work all day long." Novelist Earl Stanley Gardner was also a collector of Ralph Love paintings.

Joshua Meador 1911-1965 is well known as Walt Disney's Director of Animation Effects for nearly 30 years. But Josh often told people as they watched him paint, "First and foremost, I'm a painter, Disney is just my day job." Josh graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1930's, submitted his portfolio to Walt Disney and Walt hired him straight away. He worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, and the last project he worked on was Mary Poppins, mixing the live action of Dick Van Dyke dancing with animated penguins. Josh loved painting the California Coast, but also enjoyed excursions into the deserts near Palm Springs and the Eastern Sierra along Highway 395.

In 1904, Sam Hyde Harris 1889-1977 came to Los Angeles at the age of 15 along with his parents from Middlesex, England. While working in advertising, he studied art with Stanton McDonald-Wright, Frank Tolles Chamberlain and Hanson Puthuff. His commercial art career was most successful, creating travel posters for the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and the Sante Fe Railroads. His fine art painting career was also successful. He's best known for the Southern California light on the San Gabriel Mountians with highly stylized eucalyptus trees. He bought a home on Champion Place in Alhambra, California, just south of Pasadena. The street was home to a list of notable artists and was known locally as "Little Bohemia," "Artist's Alley," and the "Montmartre of the Southwest." Later in his career, James Swinnerton encouraged Sam to paint in the desert.

Paul Grimm 1891-1977 came to America from South Africa. When he was 18, he earned a scholarship to study art at the Dusseldorf Royal Academy in Germany. At the age of 28, he moved to Hollywood in 1919, and worked painting backdrops for movie sets. At the age of 41, he moved to Palm Springs in 1932. He was a good friend of Edgar and Elsie Payne and James Swinnerton. In 1950's, his Palm Springs studio on North Canyon Road was visited by "self-confessed dauber," President Dwight Eisenhower. The president also visited other painters in the area, including John W. Hilton. Today, Paul Grimm's paintings are prized. His subjects included the desert around Palm Springs, portraits of native Americans and paintings of the high Sierra. The portrait on the inset above is of Cowboy star Gene Autrey with Mt. San Jacinto in the background.

Plan a visit to Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery. Here's a tip: peruse our online collection before you visit. Call or text which paintings most interest you, and we'll do our best to have the painting(s) there when you arrive. (Only about one-tenth of the collection fits at one time.)

Our current gallery exhibit is Painters of the California Desert. Imagine, you can view the beauty of the desert while enjoying the comfort of Bodega Bay weather ... how cool is that?

Robert Rishell's daughter Lynne Rishell Spickard and his grandson Greg Robert Spickard visited Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery this past week. Above, they are posing in front of Robert Rishell's The High Trail. Lynne shared memories from the 1960's and '70s of meeting many of her father's friends including James Swinnerton and John W. Hilton. Greg is Robert Rishell's grandson and looks a lot like him. He studied all our Rishell paintings with a practiced and studious eye. It was a pleasure to host them.
All of our 6 Rishell paintings will be at the gallery for viewing through July 7.