)
Painting with authority, Charles Dix was a visionary who dared to dream and paint of the world and its conquest by science. His soaring speculations of the cosmic universe have involved the artist since the beginning of his career. In 1957, about the time Dix began his serious painting, man took his first step into space. From the ethereal dreams of youth, the cloud-like expressions of space concept have progressed to the technical travels seen in many of his works.
The Delafield, Wisconsin artist, whose home/studio/gallery was located just west of Waukesha, Wisconsin, spent the 4 decades or so of his life spinning a successful career as a painter of the gossamer stuff of science fiction and contemporary views of our surroundings.
Dix was raised in Wauwatosa, moving with his family to a lake home in the Dousman area. In 1956, he was featured in The Milwaukee Journal student art calendar. He studied briefly at the old Layton School of Art, and then at the Rhode Island School of Design. By age 20, he was exhibiting and selling his work, including at a one-man show. He was soon represented by galleries in San Francisco and New York.
Dix's artistic interests were diverse. In addition to oil, acrylic (which he largely pioneered), and watercolor, he worked in silver, producing unique creations in the form of rings, bracelets, and necklaces, many set with stones that he selected himself in travels to the mining areas of Mexico. He designed his primary home-studio-gallery, Moonwalk, a structure as vibrant and fresh as the works he produced there. His huge formal garden there was itself a work of art, and served as both physical training, and as relaxation from the emotional stress and intellectual involvement of painting.
Charles traveled widely, to New York, Paris, London, Puerto Rico, and other locales, providing stimulation and a change of pace, with annual winter periods at his second home in the desert in Tucson, Arizona.
The prolific creativity of Charles Dix ripened to where the artist held a prominent position in the art world as he exhibited in fields afar, winning awards in regional and national competitions. His paintings may be found in many private collections as well as those of universities, libraries and museums.
Toward the end of his life, a health condition (diabetes) limited Charles' mobility and somewhat reduced his physical energy; but until he died his creative juices continue to flow unrelentingly, and he continued to express his thoughts, moods, and observations of the universe surrounding him with new and exciting creations in oil and acrylic paintings.
After spending over 30 years at his uniqguely designed gallery, Moonwalk, development in the area made his property prone to flooding, ruining dozens of paintings and causing structural damage. Dix agreed to sell in 2004, and bought another house a few miles away in Genesee. The major landscaping was completed in fall of 2004, and groundbreaking for a new stuido had been scheduled for March of 2005.
Charles Dix passed away on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 of a heart attack at a Tucson, Arizona medical clinic. Dix was 65 years old. (Read about Charles Dix in an article in JSOnline published after his death.)
The Charles Dix Gallery
