Ruth Doerschuk Dicker (March 9, 1919 – December 2, 2004) was a

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

painter of landscapes.

Personal life

Ruth Doerschuk was born in

Niagara Falls, New York Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and named after the famed ...

, on March 9, 1919. She had a sister named Anne. She received private lessons in

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

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 Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was ...

Education

She went to

Salem Academy Salem Academy is a boarding and day school for high school girls in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It shares its campus with Salem College, located near historic Old Salem. Salem Academy is the oldest private school in North Carolina, and the 4th- ...

and then studied art history and painting and graduated from

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William ...

in 1940. She moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

where she studied at the

New York School of Fine and Applied Art Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatta ...

and at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stud ...

under

Ernest Fiene Ernest Fiene (November 2, 1894 – August 10, 1965) was a 20th-century American graphic artist who primarily worked in New York City and Woodstock, New York. Fiene was known primarily for his varied printed works, including lithographs and etchi ...

Career

While in New York, Dicker worked as a freelance illustrator, a fashion model and a draftsman for

Sperry Gyroscope Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County * Sperry, Missouri *Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County * Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier ...

. In 1970, Dicker moved to Bennett Ridge,

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

, where she found her most recognizable style in depicting the landscapes of

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

. Throughout her career, her work was shown in galleries, museums, corporate offices in

and in and around the

San Francisco Bay area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. She participated in one woman or group shows at the Legion of Honor, the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Ca ...

, and Stanford University. 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

artists led by Earl Thollander to China. She enjoyed the art of the

Southwest United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

and often traveled to

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

. Her notable paintings include the large paintings depicting the seasons in the dining room of The Nut Tree (now closed) in

Vacaville, California Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it th ...

, and a wood mural at the

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

Art and Education Center, now the Valley Wilderness Center. Dicker died on December 2, 2004, when she was living Santa Rosa, California."Ruth Doerschuk Dicker obituary".
''San Francisco Chronicle'', SFGate. Hearst Communications. December 4, 2004. Retrieved February 7, 2014."Ruth Doerschuk Dicker obituary". ''Sherwood Voice''. December 5, 2004.

Awards

Dicker was named

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,00 ...

'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.

Collections

Dicker's art is in many private and public collections in the United States and abroad, including: *

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

* Barnes-Hine Pharmaceutical *

Crown Zellerbach Crown Zellerbach was an American pulp and paper conglomerate based in San Francisco, California, purchased in a hostile takeover in 1985. Most of its pulp and paper assets were sold to James River Corporation, now part of Georgia-Pacific. ...

Harrah's Harrah's Entertainment (later named Caesars Entertainment Corporation, previously The Promus Companies) was an American casino and hotel company founded in Reno, Nevada, and based in Paradise, Nevada, that operated over 50 properties and seven go ...

, Reno *

Price Waterhouse Coopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four account ...

Wells Fargo Bank Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and inter ...

Exhibitions

* Impressions of Trees -

Stanford Research Institute SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as ...

- 1961 * the little studio,

- 1962 * Gallery House,

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the so ...

* Quay Gallery,

Tiburon, California Tiburon (; es, Tiburón, ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (for ...

*Forth Winter Invitational Exhibition - Legion of Honor - 1962 *The

Nut Tree Nut Tree is a mixed-use development in Vacaville, California near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Interstate 505. The original Nut Tree History The original Nut Tree opened in 1921 on the Lincoln Highway (old U.S. Route 40). It was crea ...

- 1964 *San Francisco Women Artists Fortieth Annual Exhibition - San Francisco Museum of Art - 1965 *85th Annual Exhibition - San Francisco Museum of Art - 1966 *The

- 1974 *Painted Wood Constructions and Assemblages - The Marshall Gallery, Tomales Bay, California *Arlene Lind Gallery,

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

*Piper Sonoma - 1983 *

Marin County Civic Center The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright ...

- 1983 *

California Museum of Art California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

- 1985 *Spring Invitational Exhibition - Alden Arts Gallery, Santa Rosa, California - 1986 *An Exhibition of bas relief painting - Sterling Vineyards - 1987 *Vineyards and Beyond - Kaiser Arts Center Gallery,

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

- 1987 *The

- 1989 *The

- 1993 *

- 1994 *Indian Summer - Danny & Company, Santa Rosa, California - 1995 *Mixed Media Paintings - Solano Bank - 2001 *Nut Tree Artist Reunion - Vacaville Museum - 2003 *12th ROTATION, Honoring the Art of Ruth Dicker -

Next Level Communications Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

- 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dicker, Ruth 1919 births 2004 deaths College of William & Mary alumni American landscape painters American women painters Painters from California 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists