Painting Lovelier Than the Ordinary

Dixie Sampier looks out the window of her mobile home and thinks of the view she had coming down Mission Gorge Road that morning. The hills had been shrouded in early morning clouds, the trees a wash of green as far as she could see.

She turns to work on her painting, calling to mind the small details like the birds in the tree-tops.

Sampier is a plein-air painter, that is to say on location, of the impressionist style. Think Monet or Renoir.

Working in watercolor, oil and acrylic, her favorite medium is watercolor. Sampier can paint whatever is in front of her, whether it’s a photograph or still life, but being outdoors in the true light is what stimulates her the most.

“Sure, I could take a photograph of the scene that I want to paint, but it is much more exciting to sense the colors from the light that I find them in and bring together the mood of the lighting,” she said.

Besides, it is difficult to see the nuances of color in the shadows within a photograph.

An artist from the time she was eight years old, Sampier’s first work to be framed and in an exhibit was in high school.

Her instructor Dotty Billiu was the one who Sampier says greatly inspired her, studying with her for five years.

“I would love to teach the lessons she taught me, but finding students who are serious enough to go through the disciplines is hard to do,” she said.

Her work can be found at the gallery in La Mesa, Porter Hall, Summers Past Farm in Flinn Springs, and at Calvary Temple in the annex building.

Art collectors regularly buy her work. One collector owns three of them, and another one owns over twenty.

People who couldn’t normally afford any paintings get to buy her cards at the gift shop at Summers Past Farm.

“People who buy them tell me they have them framed as art work,” she said.

Sampier also has enjoyed going to the summer evening concerts on the Promenade in El Cajon. One evening, she was doing a painting on location of the zydeco musical group performing.

“They came over, looked at the painting, liked what they saw, and bought it wet off the easel,” she said.

Another personal favorite of Sampier is the painting she did of the woman named “Elizabeth,” a dearly beloved elderly woman who used to go regularly to the concerts. Concert-goers used to eagerly wait for her arrival, joining in as she half-walked, half danced with her walker.

“It’s almost like the young and restless in the painting,” Sampier said about Elizabeth’s portrait. “She could really move.”

That painting was incorporated into the little amphitheater around which dancers had cavorted.

“But now it is no longer in the Promenade,” Sampier said. “That seems to happen a lot to me. I paint it, and look what’s happened. It’s gone.”’

The Park Place Restaurant adjacent to the Promenade was another favorite subject. “When the crepe myrtles were in bloom, it was beautiful,” Sampier said.

While everyone was watching the concert, she would be in the back painting the picture. “I was letting my brush dance,” she said.

But now the building is empty again and the myrtle trees gone. In another, she had painted a pretty yellow house situated on top of a hill in Spring Valley. That house is gone, too; in its place is Faith Chapel.

 Sampier has done many works on commission, including the Olaf Wieghorst Ranch of El Cajon.

“I catch the charm of a place,” she said.

She also discovered the intrigue of collage, particularly through a friend who teaches it at studios around San Diego. The one she has been working on lately is called “Coffee Grounds.”

“I’ve included the coffee grounds from my husband’s coffee in the collage. He loves coffee,” she said.

It is for the love of something that motivates any artist. In Sampier’s case, that motivation has its moorings in the Christian faith.

A missionary friend of Sampier receives regular emails of her work. This friend would never be able to buy one of her works.

“Knowing how I bring joy to her life and lift her spirit blesses me as being an artist,” she said. “Her comments to my work totally lift me and spur me on to do more.”

 “I honestly believe that my soul would die away if I didn’t paint,” she said. “My purpose in life is to have people moved by looking at my work, just to see that happen makes me fill like my life is fulfilled.”

One of her favorite sayings comes from Edward Hopper: “If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”

Sampier really does have a lot to say, except that she would rather say something in paint.

“I am thankful that as an artist I have a way to make things look lovelier than the ordinary,” she said.