RADIANCE: Willard Dixon and Erin Parish

RADIANCE
September 7 — October 4
Opening Reception Saturday, September 7, 4-6 PM

Andra Norris Gallery is overjoyed to present “RADIANCE,” a collection of new paintings from two highly acclaimed American artists: realist Willard Dixon, and abstract artist Erin Parish. Their works, though vastly different in style and execution, similarly reflect a natural world that radiates life and light.

Willard Dixon
Willard Dixon, born in 1942 in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American Realist painter of still lifes and landscapes whose work is inspired by his practice of Zen meditation. His landscapes range in scale from small to monumental, using as source material his photographs of vistas that move him in some way.

This exhibition includes views of Northern California coastal hills and shorelines, scenes from his recent travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Zion National Park, and depictions of moving skyscapes. The paintings that realistically depict Dixon’s signature late morning or early evening light have a certain resonance and open-endedness and were all completed between 2023 and 2024.

Willard Dixon has said that as time passes, he appreciates more how a painting’s spirit rises out of such humble materials (paint on stretched fabric) resting silently on the wall, contemplating both itself and the viewer amidst the hurried buzz of our contemporary lives, while offering an occasion of refuge for those desiring a deeper and more satisfying engagement.

Erin Parish
Erin Parish was born in 1966 in Saint Louis, Missouri. She is a modern painter who draws upon patterns found in nature for the subject matter of her tactile, bold, and brilliant abstract works of art. Inspired by the tranquility of the ocean, the meditative tenets of Buddhism, and the aesthetics of Japanese Wabi-Sabi, her trademark paintings — created with oil and resin on wood and canvas — are marked by circular forms, diamonds, and other abstract geometric shapes, as she considers how they mirror each other at the most microscopic and macroscopic levels.

Parish seeks to reflect visions of subatomic particles, microcosmic atoms, and cells that make up the universe. There is no primary focal point in the works, which contain layered coats to fabricate an implied depth. There is an undeniable tension between the textured surface and the underpainting; the outcome is an abstract imagery that alludes to both the universal and the specific. Viewers are therefore called upon to carry out the process of reflection and interpretation as they become active participants, giving life to the work.
Parish designs her paintings to be digested over time: viewers can observe changes in their perceptions due to changes in light, the seasons, and even their internal emotional shifts.

For more information, please contact Andra Norris.

ANDRA NORRIS GALLERY
311 Lorton Avenue
Burlingame, CA 94010
gallery: 650 235 9775
info@andranorrisgallery.com
www.andranorrisgallery.com