Winter 2016

2016 Antiques & Fine Art 129 Phil Dike (1906–1990), Sunlit Afternoon, 1949. Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30 inches. Private Collection. Throughout his sixty-year career as a professional artist, Phil Dike’s stated goal was to use various forms of abstraction to visually capture the excitement he derived from viewing scenes from California life. He never totally abandoned recognizable subject matter, but usually distorted objects, changed their colors, and created abstract shapes and symbols to represent wind, motion, and sounds. Not particularly interested in selling his art, at various times he was represented by art galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, and Laguna Beach. He preferred to work at his own pace with no pressure from outside influences. Dike taught painting at the Chouinard Art School, Scripps College, Claremont Graduate School, and at the Brandt Dike School in Corona del Mar. Roger Kuntz, Robert Frame, Robert E. Wood, and John Severson, all represented in the exhibition, were influenced to some degree by Dike’s ideas and teaching. From childhood, Dike spent time in and around Newport Beach. His family vacationed on the sand banks of Balboa Bay, from where he could access the seaside activities of sailing, diving, swimming, fishing, shell hunting, and sand castle building. The commercial fish cannery and boat building operations were within walking distance. Dike often stated that one of his favorite places to view the Pacific Ocean was from the bluff in Corona del Mar, just above Pirates Cove. From there he could see people relaxing on the beach, fishermen rock fishing, and sailboats coming in and out of the harbor mouth, made more magical in the evening as the sun set behind Catalina Island. Painted in the late 1940s , Sunlit Afternoon was inspired by an afternoon spent at that location. It is an engaging abstract interpretation of an easily recognizable Southern California coastline scene. Several other Dike works from that area and time are also in the exhibition.