Bayou Artist | Eyes of Color

ARTICLE BY BEN CANNON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

One day in early October, Kathy Biedenharn stepped into an art gallery behind West Monroe’s Antique Alley. A handful of friends and associates greeted Biedenharn and helped her unload a couple dozen paintings parceled up in paper and packing foam. The paintings were going to be featured in an art show Biedenharn was curating for Courtyard Galerie. The gallery, which opened in 2023, has quickly established itself as a stylish hub for artists along Trenton Street.   

Once all the parcels had been loaded in, Biedenharn began carefully unwrapping each one. “Oh my gosh, what a happy painting,” said one helper who was unfamiliar with the artist who had created the vibrantly colored work. Until recently, very few outside the orbit of the local art world had ever heard the name Ralph Nix, the artist whose work Biedenharn had selected for a solo show.

For those who don’t know Kathy Biedenharn, she is something of a doyenne to Monroe’s art community. Biedenharn formerly had Levee Gallery, which showcased contemporary art and sculpture by artists from outside North Louisiana. Biedenharn opened her art gallery in 2017, resurrecting the name Levee to honor another gallery that had introduced many Monroe residents to contemporary art back in the 1990s.

One day, while Biedenharn was still in the early stages of opening her business, a curious passerby stopped in and asked what she was planning to do with the space. The man, whose name was Ralph Nix, could barely contain his excitement when Biedenharn told him she was opening up an art gallery. Over the following weeks and months, Nix stopped by regularly to check in on Biedenharn’s progress, occasionally helping her move furniture. They mostly talked about art, and eventually a friendship evolved. Which is why it might come as a surprise to learn that Nix waited nearly a year to tell Biedenharn that he himself is a painter.   

When it comes to making small talk, Ralph Nix can be a man of relatively few words, especially if you’re unfamiliar to him. It’s not that he is shy, per se. On the contrary, Nix seems to liven up within a group, especially one comprised of other creative individuals. Over the years, he has traversed the Twin Cities on foot, sometimes walking for miles to reach an art opening or literary event. 

Nix, 74, was born in Lake Charles, the youngest of three boys born to Mary and George Nix. When Ralph was the only son remaining in the household, George took a job promotion and moved the household of three to London. As the elder Mr. Nix was often preoccupied with work, Mary and Ralph soaked in the history and culture of England, visiting many of the country’s art museums and fabled historic sites along the way. This exposure to art history would leave an indelible imprint on young Ralph. 

The Nix family eventually returned to the U.S., resettling in Oklahoma when Ralph was still in his mid-twenties. He got a job working in the kitchen at a country club near the family home. Not long after moving to Oklahoma, Nix picked up a paint brush and began to apply paint to canvas. His paintings were inspired by the many Old Masters he saw back in England, as well as Impressionists like Renoir and Monet. 

Nix’s style was just as likely influenced by a then up-and-coming painting instructor who had recently been introduced to American households on PBS and would go onto inspire multiple generations to pick up a paint brush: Bob Ross. “Ralph watched Bob Ross for years,” said Mark Nix, Ralph’s older brother, who ended up settling in Monroe and raised his own family here. 

After George Nix died in 1998, Mary and Ralph moved to Morgan City, Louisiana, to live with the eldest Nix son, Doug. In Morgan City, Ralph continued to paint and got involved with the local artists’ guild, which connected him with creative mentors who introduced him to open air markets and festivals where he could display and sell his work. Life drifted along in St. Mary Parish. There was plenty of fresh seafood straight from the Gulf, and the bayous of South Louisiana offered more idyllic scenes than any painter could ever dream of capturing in a lifetime. 

Once both Ralph’s mother Mary and brother Doug had passed, his brother Mark wanted to move Ralph up to Monroe to be near Mark and his family. Mark, who has always been protective of his baby brother, helped Ralph settle into an apartment in Monroe. 

Over the years, Nix has painted hundreds, perhaps thousands of canvases in his studio, which takes up part of his living room. When Nix sits down at his easel, he quickly settles into a focused mindset and begins to paint, usually for hours at a time. He rarely misses a day. It didn’t take long for such a prolific artist to paint more canvases than his one-bedroom apartment could accommodate. To prepare for Nix’s first solo show in Monroe, he and Biedenharn spent hours combing through his many, many paintings and sketches.

While most people might reasonably assume that every artist wants to earn a living by selling their work, that’s actually not always the case. Some artists create out of sheer compulsion and shun recognition, sometimes even hiding their work and, in rarer cases, retreating from society altogether. These publicity-shy, often reclusive individuals make work that is commonly referred to as “outsider art.” One example of a so-called outsider artist is Vivien Maeir, a New York City street photographer whose archive of thousands of photographs wasn’t discovered until after her death. Today, Maier’s work is highly valued in the art world, and she has become the subject of multiple documentary films, books, and essays about her enigmatic life. 

It’s pretty obvious that Nix does not want to hide his art from the public. However, there have been conversations among the tight-knit group of artists and art collectors around Nix that suggest he might share some of the characteristics of an outsider artist. “He takes his inner world and puts it on a canvas,” said Colleen Stewart, a Monroe-based art lover and painter. 

Back in October, Stewart happened to swing by Courtyard the same day Biedenharn had begun to hang Nix’s paintings for the show. “Is there one that looks like Italy?” asked Stewart.

“What about this one?” replied Biedenharn, retrieving a small painting depicting a country house tucked into a sunlit setting.

“I’ll take it!’ said Stewart, cementing the show’s first sale. Stewart was astonished to later learn that Nix had never actually visited Italy yet somehow captured the sensation of being there. 

The painting Stewart purchased could have been inspired by a vision of Italy, but the spectrum of Nix’s work Biedenharn had selected for the show could take an audience around the world, traveling across several different influences of painting. Still life? Check. Impressionistic landscapes? Quite a few. Portraits that seem to suggest a mood or emotion rather than resemble an actual person? Definitely.

“He creates his own world with his work,” said Stewart. “I would say he has a very vivid and active inner life.”  

On the eve of the opening, the artist himself arrived. Standing about six-feet-tall and often dressed in long pants and a collared shirt, Nix has a slightly Bohemian air about him. As far as painters go, he looks the part. His wire rim glasses frame the hazel-colored eyes of an artist who has been interpreting his take on the world through decades of painting.

Nix paced around the Cotton Street-facing gallery in which his show was in the process of being hung. Biedenharn, ultimately calling the shots as the show’s curator, was working out the puzzle of where to place each piece. “I like having these together,” suggested Nix, gesturing to a grouping of brightly colored landscapes. Biedenharn agreed.  

From the moment Biedenharn saw Nix’s work, she knew she had an uncommon talent on her hands. “Ralph’s paintings make me happy,” said Biedenharn, echoing a word used earlier by the new onlooker. “They just give me a pleasant, good feeling.”

Biedenharn and Nix attended the opening at Courtyard together. Recent rain showers had deposited a few inches of water along the curbs of Trenton Street, while the autumn leaves fell to the ground. Inside, Biedenharn chatted with the show’s attendees as Nix playfully engaged with other artists and their work. Two friends brought together by the mystery of art, which often examines the mystery of life itself.