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Portrait of an American Icon

 

 

  • Her ongoing legacy

    Feast of the Rose Garlands

     Mixed Media

    Her ongoing legacy

    Throughout her distinguished career, Patricia Nix has been a keen protagonist in the development of late twentieth century painting and sculpture. Her membership in the National Academy of Design defines her as one of the most respected oil painters in America. Nix`s work is displayed throughout the world in prestigious public, corporate, and university collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

    Although she has long resided in Palm Beach, New York City and France, Nix is a native Texan, and her earliest influences came from the culture of Texas: deep religious faith, southwestern churches, Mexican icons, and Native American crafts. Her work embraces art history and draws on the major stylistic movements of our time, including cubism and surrealism.

    Nix's paintings are characterized by the lush, vibrant beauty of her colors and imagery. But while opulently beautiful, Nix's work possesses a rigor that rejects sentimentality. As with all art that is true and lasting, Nix's challenges the viewer to respond. She seeks both to entertain and to evoke a personal, emotional response. Nix describes her own work as "a careful balance between accident and discipline - a continuous dialogue between my conscious mind and the unconscious. I court accident in order to let the unconscious do most of the talking. The best paintings often happen quite magically with very little conscious effort. It's an intuitive process, guided by years of experience, in which one thing simply leads to another."

    Patricia Nix