Maynard Dixon's Paintings of Tucson Arizona
Maynard Dixon specialist Dr. Mark Sublette discuss Dixon's later life in Tucson Arizona. Beautiful examples of Maynard Dixon's Tucson paintings and watercolors are illustrated in this video along with Maynard Dixon's history of his Arizona years.
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Maynard Dixon's Paintings of Tucson Arizona
One of Tucson’s very best known artists was Maynard Dixon. A and Dixon was a wonderful artist that lived from 1875 to 1946. The last part of his life – from 1940 to 1946, he actually lived here in Tucson, Arizona. He lived in a wonderful little adobe home with his wife Edith Hamlin, and he painted some fantastic images of the Catalina Mountains and of saguaros. I wanted just to give you a little history about Maynard Dixon and Tucson, because it's really my favorite of his time frames, and it really is just because he lived here. It was outstanding what he did in this time frame, even though he had emphysema and his health was failing. The painting to my left (your right) is of the Catalina Mountains, and I love the way that he did this cottonwood. This is a very classic kind of Maynard Dixon-esque feel. The cottonwoods – a lot of people feel and myself included – he, Dixon, felt that this represented him; that he was this lone kind of individual struggling in the desert but yet flourishing. In fact, the first thing he did when he built his house in 1940, was he put a cottonwood right in front and watched it grow because it needed nurture and water, but yet it represented himself. The pieces in Tucson are generally of the lifestyle around this area. They can be rodeo shots; often, he did these little water colors of some of the tourists that had come to Arizona, and specifically Tucson, out at the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch. But, he also did these lovely pieces of saguaros and mountains with fast moving clouds and little adobe houses. It was a wonderful time frame for him artistically, even though medically he was failing. And by the time he got into 1946, he was really failing quite badly, and in fact, his last piece, which was a monumental work of art – a mural of, all things, the Grand Canyon – the hardest thing probably to paint. He actually had to have Edith and Buck Weaver help him finish this because he was so ill. They're great time frames – the Tucson pieces are generally done from 1940 to 1946. I love their looks. The palate is very subdued; he's at the point where he's really editing down to just the basics of what he likes. Tucson, Arizona. Maynard Dixon.