Dixon's vision of the West is so powerful, I believe, because of his powers of distillation. So well does he capture the essence of the land, that his resulting West is mythic, expansive, almost Elysian.
In the first two images below, he pushes the horizon as far as it will go in both directions and to different affect - he was a master of composition as well.
I was fortunate to see his work when it came to the Pasadena Museum of California Art a couple years ago. I saw the first painting below, and it inspired both my main character and the working title of my film (and this blog).
