Watershed, oil on canvas is 36 x 55 inches. The painting features a walking pathway and rolling foothills up close, and into the distance with a clear blue sky. A serene and calming painting by Willard Dixon, who is one of the finest American contemporary realist painters living today. Dixon has painted coastal landscapes for 35 years, capturing the undeniable beauty of the West with its grand and humble spirit. The same sensitivity can be found in Dixon’s contemporary still life scenes that offer viewers a resting place to contemplate objects: fruit, glassware, orbs and bowls — and his portraiture, which largely focuses on his artist friends and illustrious colleagues.
Dixon’s work can be found in a wide array of distinctive private and public collections, as well as the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Watershed — 36 x 55 inches. Oil on canvas, and traditionally framed in streamlined, minimal oak.
The artist was born: Kansas City MO, 1942
Education: Art Students League, New York, NY
Cornell University
Brooklyn Museum School
San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. 1969
Awards and Commissions
N.E.A. Fellowship Grant- 1989
California Supreme Court Mural Commission- 1998
Las Vegas Federal Courthouse Commission, G.S.A.-1998
Teaching
1989-90: San Francisco State University
1975: San Francisco Art Institute Realism Seminar
1974-76: Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA
1973-74, 1976: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1971-72: California State University, Hayward, CA
One Man Exhibitions
2015: Willard Dixon Portraits College of Marin Fine Art Gallery, Kentfield
2014: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2008: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2005: Fischbach Gallery, NYC,NY
2005: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004: Fischbach Gallery, NYC, NY.
2002: Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002: Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
2001: Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000: Fischbach Gallery, NYC , NY
2000: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA
1998: Hackett Freedman Gallery, SF, CA
1997: Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996, 1995: Contemporary Realist Gallery (now Hackett Freedman Gallery)
1994: Fischbach Gallery
1993: Contemporary Realist Gallery
1992: Fischbach Gallery
1991: Earl McGrath Gallery, 454 North, Los Angeles, CA
1990: Fischbach Gallery
1989: William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1988: Gallery 454 North, Los Angeles, CA
1987: Fischbach Gallery
1987: Gallery 454 North
1986: William Sawyer Gallery
1985: Fischbach Gallery
1984: Harris Gallery, Houston, Tx
1984: William Sawyer Gallery
1983, 1982: Fischbach Gallery
1981: William Sawyer Gallery
1980,1979: Tortue Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1976, 1975: William Sawyer Gallery
1973, 1972: William Sawyer Gallery
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017: SHIFT / with Elizabeth Barlow, Kim Frohsin, Erin Parrish, Irene Zweig, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA
2015: REAL with Elizabeth Barlow Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA.
2014: Stillness and Activity / A father and daughter exhibition, Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA.
2013: Outwin Boocher Portrait Competition 2013 Exhibition” Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Hey Everybody / Portraits, Diablo Valley College
2012: Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge”, George Krevsky Gallery, S.F., CA.
Introduction Two/ Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA.
2011: California: A Landscape of Dreams/ Fresno Art Museum
2010: Self Portrait Invitational/ Julie Nester Gallery, Park City UT
2009: On Beauty /I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA.
2008: At Water’s Edge / I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA.
2007: San Francisco Scenes/ George Krevsky Gallery, S.F., CA
Ten Years- A Retrospective/ Dolby Chadwick Gallery, S.F., CA.
2006: Our Planet, Our Home/ SFMOMA Artists Gallery, S.F. CA
2005: 2005 Spring Group Show/ Earl McGrath Gallery, L.A., CA
2002: H2O’02, Paintings of Water/ Fischbach Gallery, NYC
Scene in Oakland 1852-2002 Oakland Museum Oakland, CA
The Garden/ Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, CA
The Moving Still Life/ Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Bay Area Printmakers/ works from Trillium Press,
Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, CA
California Landscape Paintings/ College of Marin Art Gallery, Kentfield, CA
Bay Area Printmakers/ SF Museum of Modern Art/Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Visions: Northern California/ Bank of America, San Francisco, CA
2001: Opening Exhibit: Group Show, Fischbach Gallery, NY, NY
2000: Hackett Freedman Gallery Artists/ Shasta College Art Gallery, Redding, Ca
1999: Homage to the Art Institute, Artists Who Transformed American
Culture, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999: What is Art For? What are Museums For? What are You For? curated Curated for the Oakland Museum by William T. Wiley & Mary Hull Webster, Oakland, CA
1998: Paintings of Marin County Past and Present/ The North Point Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997: 10th Anniversary Exhibition/ Hackett Freedman Gallery, S.F., CA
1996: Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas/ Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (traveling exhibition)
Contemporary American Realist Painters/ Halls Crown Center Gallery, Kansas City, MO
1996: Foundation for the Future: Celebrating 125 Years at the San Francisco Art Institute/ One Bush St., S.F., CA
1996: New Work by Selected Gallery Artists, Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Flower Paintings/ Contemporary Realist Gallery, S.F., CA
1995: Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area / De Young Museum, S.F., CA
Contemporary Still Life Painting/
David Klein Gallery...