Janet Blake, Curator of Collections at Laguna Art Museum, presents “Chasing Daylight: Phil Dike, 1927-1943.”
Phil Dike was one of the leaders of the California watercolor style of painting, as well as a gifted professor of art at Scripps College, where he inspired many students. Janet Blake, an expert on early 20th-century art in California, will illuminate Dike’s distinctive artistic vision. This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Phil Dike exhibition at the Williamson Gallery from Aug. 31-October 13, 2013.
Dike contributed greatly to the California art scene of the 1930s and 1940s through his work in what would later become known as the “California Style” of watercolor painting. As the 1920s drew to a close and throughout the 1930s, Dike began to master the art of translating the effects of light and color into watercolor.
With more than 50 paintings, the exhibition at the Williamson Gallery tells the story of these years in detail. Visitors will view Dike’s impressions of life in New York in the late 1920s and his studies at the Arts Students League; his work in Europe, including his time at the American Academy of Art at Fountainbleau; and his travels afterwards. Paintings created after his return from his travels overseas will also be on display, as Dike continued his exploration of light and color by recording street scenes, architecture and landscapes in Southern California and the Southwest.
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