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Abstract artist Peter Dixon’s work is immediately recognizable—canvases filled with luminous squares that bring to mind the works of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. The paintings strike a lyric, almost mystical chord in the viewer, yet the artist rejects the suggestion that his works have some hidden, otherworldly meaning. “I am not a mysterious person,” asserts Dixon. Instead, he says, a rigorous insistence on the square allows him the latitude to explore the “optical journey” the viewer takes when examining one of his images. By using the square, Dixon eliminates any vertical or horizontal elements or narrative suggestions. This allows one shape to diffuse into its background while another moves to the foreground in a soft shift of muted color and close value, creating a subtle interplay that Dixon favors.
The nuanced, constantly evolving nature of Dixon’s images is mirrored by his multi-step creative process which takes place over a series of months. With each painting, Dixon initially completes approximately 80 percent of the image then, over the course of the next several months, he adds the missing 20 percent. Dixon’s technical approach also adds to the production time for each painting. Working in the renaissance technique, he layers glazes over an underpainting to achieve depth and resonance in his colors. “For me, the work is about the edges of seeing…the way an image appears or reappears on the periphery of an edge. The "atmospheric," "mystical" movement is created by the eyes' optical journey through the work.”
Dixon received a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He teaches at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH and has exhibited in shows across New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts, and Cape Cod.
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