Ruth Dicker

Ruth Doerschuk Dicker (March 9, 1919 – December 2, 2004) was a California painter of landscapes.

Personal life

Ruth Doerschuk was born in Niagara Falls, New York, on March 9, 1919. She had a sister named Anne.^[1][2] She received private lessons in oil painting between the ages of nine and twelve.

Doerschuk met her husband, Ralph Dicker, in New York and they were married on August 25, 1942, in California. They raised their sons Thomas and Scott in Palo Alto, California.^[1]

Education

She went to Salem Academy and then studied art history and painting and graduated from College of William and Mary in 1940.^[1][3] She moved to New York City where she studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art^[1] and at the Art Students League under Ernest Fiene.

Career

While in New York, Dicker worked as a freelance illustrator, a fashion model^[1] and a draftsman for Sperry Gyroscope. In 1970, Dicker moved to Bennett Ridge, Santa Rosa, California, where she found her most recognizable style in depicting the landscapes of Sonoma County.^[1]

Throughout her career, her work was shown in galleries, museums, corporate offices in New York City and in and around the San Francisco Bay area.^[1] She participated in one woman or group shows at the Legion of Honor, the Oakland Museum of California, and Stanford University.^[1] Her style includes vibrant acrylic colors, splatters of paint and strips of wood covered in rice-paper to give dimensionality and texture.

After her husband died in 1980, she enjoyed the most productive years of her career. In 1983, Dicker traveled with a group of California artists led by Earl Thollander to China. She enjoyed the art of the Southwest United States and often traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Her notable paintings include the large paintings depicting the seasons in the dining room of The Nut Tree (now closed) in Vacaville, California, and a 24-foot-wide (7.3 m) wood mural at the Yosemite Art and Education Center, now the Valley Wilderness Center.^[1][4]

Dicker died on December 2, 2004, when she was living Santa Rosa, California.^[1][5]

Awards

Dicker was named American Association of University Women's "Women Artist of the Year". In San Francisco, she won the Society of Women Artists' President's prize at the Museum of Art. At the De Saisset Museum she won first and second prizes.^[1]

Collections

Dicker's art is in many private and public collections in the United States and abroad, including:^[1]

• Bank of America
• Barnes-Hine Pharmaceutical
• Crown Zellerbach
• Harrah's, Reno
• Price Waterhouse Coopers
• Wells Fargo Bank

Exhibitions

References