The Warriors 1911

Maynard Dixon's ‘The Warriors’ is like a snapshot of motion, rendered in warm, earthy tones that feel baked right out of the landscape. Look at how Dixon layers these browns and golds, not to mimic the desert perfectly, but to capture its essence. For me, that’s what process is all about: not chasing an exact copy, but finding a way to express what resonates. The physicality here is so present: you can almost feel the dust kicked up by the horses. Notice the way the light catches the lead warrior’s back, how Dixon uses short, choppy strokes to suggest muscle and movement. It's like he's trying to capture the energy of the scene through the physical act of painting. The horse looks wild, you can almost feel him frothing at the mouth. Dixon reminds me a bit of Frederic Remington, both capturing the West with a blend of romance and realism, but Dixon has something more abstracted and raw about him. He knows it's not about the perfect image, it's about the gesture, the feeling, the story that the land itself tells.