WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS USA: MY FAVORITE PICTURES

Homepage | Contact Us | Our Location | Next Artist | Previous Artist
| A-B | C-D | E-G | H-He | Hi-J | K-M | N-P | Q-S | T-Z |
California/American School | Alpha Listings of Artists | Recent Acquisitions
Watercolors | Farm Scenes | Coastal | Deserts | Mountains | National Parks | Still Life & Portraits

	Philip Latimer Dike 1906 - 1990
	After Sailing	Urban Shore

In his Forward to the book Phil Dike, fellow artist and life long friend Millard Sheets says Phil Dike loved light, color, and atmosphere. Every picture is carefully conceived, and is never just a recording of a particular moment. His work is a fusion of abstract qualities used to express a love of life and reality.

Phil Dike grew up in Redlands, California, in a Victorian mansion where walls were adorned by paintings done by his maternal grandmother, Eliza Sophia Twigg, whom he never met. At Redlands High School, his teacher, Mary Louise Arnold, encouraged him to enter a competition for a scholarship to the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles. At Chouinard in the late 1920's, young Dike was quiet, but students and faculty respected his talent and dedication. One of his friends was Millard Sheets. In the early 1930's, Dike moved to New York to study at the Art Student's League. He produced many works of New York, and also took advantage of the city's other arts, learning much of classical music, dance, opera, and theater. He developed a long friendship with Ted Geisel, who later became the famed author and illustrator, "Dr. Seuss." Next stop in his art education was near Paris, where he studied at the American Academy of Art at Fountainbleau, followed by a time in Paris where he studied lithographic techniques. While in Europe, he traveled extensively, seeing the cities and countryside of Western Europe and North Africa.

When the Great Depression hit, Dike corresponded with Mrs. Nelbert Chouinard in Los Angeles, who offered Dike a teaching position which he held for the next twenty years. Happy to have a paying job in bad times, Phil Dike returned to California. During the depression, American art severed ties with European influences, and regional groupings of artists produced new and wholly American work. This activity was in part encouraged and financed by the government's new WPA project. Having been in other parts of the nation, Phil knew that the depression didn't hit California particularly hard, and rather than painting the depression's pain, he painted more positive scenes; children playing in parks, fishermen working their boats, and and sights in nearby Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora.

Dike's achieved success as an artist early on, and was involved with the California Water Color Society, which included Millard Sheets, Lee Blair, Hardie Gramatky, Emil Kosa, Phil Paradise, Milford Zornes, Paul Sample, and Barse Miller. The members of the society captured California light and color. Transparent watercolor paint was their favored medium. Between 1927 and 1955, Phil Dike exhibited his works more than any other California Water Color Society member. His work won many awards.

At this time, California gave birth to another art form: full color animated cartoons. One company managed to corner exclusive rights to having animated color film developed, and that company was lead by Walt Disney. Disney gained fame and with it, huge expectations to produce top quality films. He hired top artists from across the country such as recent Chicago Art Institute graduate Joshua Meador. In 1935, Disney also hired Phil Dike to teach advanced drawing and composition to his artists. Dike did work on some Disney films including Snow White and Fantasia. He said of artists working for Disney, "One of the greatest things Disney has to offer an artist is the discipline of having to sell his stuff by making definite and difficult statements, in simple and uncomplicated language, pictorially speaking."

His work is in many museums, most notably, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Sources: Janice Lavoos and Gordon T. McClelland, Phil Dike, 1988; Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California 1786 - 1940, 3rd ed., 2002.

COPYRIGHTED PHOTOS, IMAGES AND TEXT: INCLUDED IN THIS ONLINE BLOG FOR INFORMATION AND EDUCATION ONLY. RLH

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

"flowers" from mortimernogamo's AOL Pictures Public Gallery. 

YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME...

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. BREATHAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL...A LITERAL EXPLOSION OF SPING COLOR THAT ENERGIZES MY SPIRIT AND SOUL...

UPLIFTING AND POSITIVE: THE LONGER I LOOK AT THIS EXPLOSION OF SPRING COLOR AND BLOSSOMS, THE BETTER I FEEL. IF I LOOK AT THIS PANORAMA OF COLOR LONG ENOUGH, I WILL BE, AS IN THE MUSICAL, "YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME." 

 NO, I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE MUSICAL, BUT I CAN HUM THE MELODY. GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY  INSPIRES GREAT MUSIC AND SONG. GOOD WORK MISTER MORTIMERNOGAMO...

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

one of my best photos will become a painting in a few days, hopefully...

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

Picture from huffstutterr's AOL Pictures Public Gallery. 

Several weeks ago I decided that I might improve my art ability if I invested in some art supplies that were considered superior. Would I be able to be a better artist? I wanted to be able to achieve better washes; I wanted my watercolors to look more professional, like I might know what I am doing if you catch the drift. So far, I am satisfied that upgrading makes a difference. I've been using my DERWENT WATERCOLOUR PENCILS for several weeks. I like them. They are able to be sharpened without wasting away, one problem I have with charcoal pencils. From my point of view, they are worth the extra money spent.

HERE'S HOW THEY WORK: Sketch the scene; pretend it is a sketch and darken the shadow areas as you like. Blend the colors for whatever shade, hue or intensity you prefer; highlight areas you like without causing too much traffic or action. Once you feel like it is done, ask yourself if the work would best be left as is, or would it be better if it became a watercolor. Fine, you want to make a watercolor, okay. Most artists tend to continue working on a painting without ceasing, thereby making it too busy. But go ahead, wet the brushes and start stroking the areas. Watch the wash appear. It looks good. Go to darkened lines and turn them into a believable structures. Overall, you will probably like your work, though you will promise yourself you will work on it.
Stop and check it out.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

http://www.mowsart.com/Galleries/mschuler/htm/doryrow.htm

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

ALLPOSTERS.COM

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this