| Facts/Data
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Birth
1906 (Redlands, California)
Death
1990 (Claremont, California)
Lived/Active
California/Arizona
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mod coastal-town-landscape, regional scene
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Known as the intellectual and artistic leader of the California
watercolor artists, Phil Dike was strongly influenced by avant-garde
painters Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin, and Charles Burchfield.
He
was born in Redlands, California, and was exposed to art from his
childhood because his grandmother, Eliza Twigg, was a painter. He
first studied art in high school with Mary Louise Arnold whom Dike
later described as so sombre and dressed in such heavy shoes that she
looked "like Washington crossing the Delaware" (Edan Hughes).
In
1924, he began his art education at Chouinard Art Institute in Los
Angeles, and in 1928 went to the Art Students League in New York where
he studied with Frank DuMond and George Luks. He traveled
throughout Europe and studied for a year, 1930, in France at the
American Academy of Fontainebleau, and exhibited at that time at the
Paris Salon.
He returned to Los Angeles where he taught at
Chouinard's for twenty years and also worked in the fine art department
of Walt Disney Studios where from 1934 to 1944, he was Color
Coordinator and worked on animated classics including Fantasia and Snow White. He was the first artist to put color into Disney animations.
From 1950 to 1971, he was on the faculty of Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School.
He
first went to Arizona in 1931 during the Depression and returned to
paint copper mining scenes, where he depicted a thriving copper mining
industry of both open pit and underground mines. Some of his
locations were Jerome, northwest of Phoenix, and Globe and Morenci east
and south of Phoenix.
His paintings can be found at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Butler Institute of
American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and the Pasadena Art Institute in
California. He also did work in ceramic tile including the entrance of
the St. San Antonio College Fine Arts Center and the pool area of
Scripps College, and the chapel of Claremont Community Congregational
Church.
Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art
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Biography from CalART.com:
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Phil Dike, N.A. (1906-1990)...Born: Redlands, CA
Studied: Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles), Art Students League (New York), American Academy (France)
Member: National Academy of Design, American Watercolor Society, California Water Color Society, Philadelphia Water Color Club.
Phil Dike was born and raised in Southern California. In 1923, he was
awarded a scholarship to study at the Chouinard Art Institute and
received instruction from E Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence Hinkle. He
continued his art education in New York City studying with George
Bridgman, Frank Vincent DuMond and George Luks. After returning to
California in 1929, he began teaching at the Chouinard Art Institute
and was one of the first artists to develop what became known as the
California Style of watercolor painting.
In the early 1930s, he continued teaching and painting and took further
studies in Paris. His watercolors were being exhibited in museum shows
throughout America and he was receiving wide acclaim and numerous
awards. By 1935, he was also working at the Walt Disney Studios where
he taught art and color theory while working on animated films. Among
the many classic films he worked on were Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, Fantasia and The Three Caballeros. In 1938, Dike served as
president of the California Water Color Society.
After World War 11, Dike left Disney and went back into teaching and
painting full time. He and Rex Brandt formed the highly successful
Brandt-Dike Summer School of Painting and during regular school months,
he taught at the Chouinard Art Institute. It was at this time that
Dike's watercolors became more modern looking. He began using
calligraphy in very creative ways and incorporating
geometricabstractionist ideas into his work.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, he was a Professor of Art at Scripps
College and Claremont Graduate School. He was an inspiration to many
well-known artists who came out of these schools, and was honored with
the title of Professor Emeritus when he retired. In addition to living
in Claremont and painting at Balboa Bay, Dike also built a second home
in Cambria on the central California coast. Harbors, driftwood, figures
on the beach and dramatic rock formations all became subjects for his
many abstract watercolors of this era. Dike is remembered as a
thoughtful, caring teacher and is one of the main innovators in the
development of the watercolor painting movement in California.
Source:
Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last. California Watercolors 1850-1970
Interview with Phil Dike, 1983. |
Biography from Sparrow Fine Art:
| Phil Dike, a native
southern Californian, was one of the leading California Style
watercolor artists beginning in the early 1930s. This style, which
flourished from the mid 1920s to the 1950s, gave a bold new look and
new acceptance to watercolor as a medium for finished painting.
Dike studied at Chouinard Art Institute with F. Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence
Hinkle and at the Art Students League in New York, and then learned
fresco painting and mural decoration at the American Academy in
Fontainebleau, France.
Between 1935 and 1945, he was a color
consultant, designer, and instructor for Disney Studios. From 1950-1969
he was a professor of art at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate
School. He also did altar pieces for churches, mosaic decorations,
illustrations for national publications, and limited- edition
lithographs and serigraphs. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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