Inside The Nut Tree

There are few pictures of The Nut Tree available online. I have been unable to find a picture of The Nut Tree dining room with Ruth Dicker paintings in it, but I did find and scan this one of the retail section:

Another Repainting

Soon after my last post, I discovered that the example I gave for the approximate time period of the original version of Mountain Meadow was actually repainted also.

Here is Sonoma Mountain:

And here is Bays from 1984:

Repainting Mountain Meadow

I have always known that Ruth Dicker would sometimes touch-up or repaint some of her works. I once heard of her borrowing one of our paintings and giving it back to us modified. In her slides, I found a few examples with subtle changes between different slides, but nothing as drastic as this example. I hadn't even noticed after looking at these pictures multiple times what happened. So starting with the newest version, here is Mountain Meadow from 1998:

Now the next picture looks extremely similar, and you might think the lighting and angle are different. But then you look at the yellow foreground leaves and you see that there are far fewer than that version above.

It was when I saw this picture that I started to put it all together. The three main trees have lost most of their branches and have been reduced to three simple shapes and the background is much shallower. There is no sky and the colors are very dark.

The final picture includes Ruth herself and a very minimal piece. A blank board with three tree shapes. The same three main trees as in all of these pieces. I don't think this was considered a work-in-progress at the time because I believe I have pictures of a show with this version. Another interesting thing to note is that this picture is older than 1998. The date listed on the painting changes with the modifications. Maybe the name changed as well, I will have to do more looking. If I had to guess, I would say this version is from around 1984 as I think it was made at around the same time as Bays.

The Mountain Meadow postcard is the first version above.

Update 1: The first version was called Three Oaks and was painted in 1983.

Yosemite Bank

Before it was the Yosemite Art and Education Center, the building was a bank. I think it was both a Bank of America and a Wells Fargo Bank. It was one of the banks that actually commissioned the mural. I found this old photo and scanned it. Sorry for the low quality.

Another Fan

The same day I noticed the paintings for sale on ebay, I received an email with these pictures and a nice story to go along with them. Keep those pictures coming!

Woods at Yonalassee from 1970:

Recent Ebay Activity

Two Ruth Dicker paintings sold on ebay today. I considered bidding on them, but am running low on wall space. I still thought about buying and storing them, but instead I told some of my friends. One of them managed to be a winning bidder!

Here is Winter Woods:

and here is Birch Grove from 1961:

The Artist's Studio

The memories I have of Ruth Dicker's house are like a museum. It was filled to the brim with her art, the art of her friend's, and everything that inspired her. It was full, but everything had a place. Her studio in particular was good representation of her creative process. The plywood floor of the studio was covered in thousands of drops of paint. The shelves were packed with sketches, photos, and magazine clippings; mostly of trees. I wish I had more pictures to share, but I do have some pictures that show what I am talking about.

Here is the desk in her studio:

Her kitchen. Note the glass bottles on the shelf were a mix of colored glass and clear glass with colored water:

There was even art hanging from the trees in the backyard:

Empire College in Santa Rosa

I thought Ruth Dicker had sold some paintings to Empire College, but I didn't know exactly where it was. I happened to be in the Santa Rosa today and stopped in to see if I could find any. They had one as soon as you walk in the front door and one up the stairwell from the main lobby. Here they are:

Almond Orchard, 1974

Fog in the Valley, 1983

iPhone Wallpapers

I have recently been using a lot of non-traditional Ruth Dicker paintings as my iPhone wallpapers. They look great with the bold contrasting colors and interesting scenery. Tree paintings work great as well, but I find there is something special about these. Tap an image to get to the full 320 x 480 resolution. Happy Fourth!

White Church with Red Sky, 1962

St. Michael's Alley, 1962

Poplars and Haystacks

Unknown Title

Unknown Title

Unkown Title, 1961

140 West Main, 1962

Government Art Database

I remember seeing this link before.  It is database of government owned artwork tracked by the General Services Administration.  It doesn't look like a very modern database and I seem to remember it having a picture before.  I wonder if it is the same This Rise as this one from 1962:

Found on Craigslist in Santa Monica

I did a search the other day and found this on craigslist.  It is a Ruth Dicker painting called Guaymas from 1964:

I'll update this post if I get any more information.

Swedish Fans

A man wrote me from Sweden saying he had traveled to the United States many times to visit his sister in Palo Alto.  He met Ruth a couple of times starting in 1962.  He even has a couple of Ruth Dicker paintings!

Orchard from 1961:

I Walked in the Woods One Day from 1964:

More Ruth Dicker Fans

Getting emails from Ruth Dicker fans is great.  The latest contributer has some amazing pieces:

Autumn Moon from 1965:

Le Lac Muet from 1981:

River Woods from 1979:

River Woods actually matches a scanned slide that I have.  I'm not sure if the painting was re-done since the slide was taken or if the slide has deteriorated in the past 30 years.

Keep sending me pictures fans!

Additional Postcards

I found two additional postcard styles that I hadn't scanned yet.  Here they are:

Drummer from 1995:

and Les Fleurs De Le Soleil from 1991:

Nut Tree and Coffee Tree Menus

I have a couple of Nut Tree and Coffee Tree menus featuring Ruth Dicker's work. I think that some of them were used during specific shows, but I also seem to remember the Coffee Tree always having her menus. Here they are:

Left to right are a Nut Tree menu dated January, 1986, a Nut Tree menu dated Winter 1987, and a Coffee Tree menu dated August 1990. Note that the cover of the first menu is a close-up of a painting titled Snow Birch and was also available as a poster. The insides of the two Nut Tree menus have a series of black and white paintings that Ruth did. I have some photos of other paintings from that series of black and white paintings here, here, and here.

I will try to make some time to scan some of the inside pages as well, they are very nice. If there are other Ruth Dicker menus out there, let me know.

More Found Paintings

I got another email recently with some great Ruth Dicker painting pictures.  I added some pictures to the private collections section of my photos site.  Here they are:

Snow Woods, 1962:

Off Rollo Road, 1970:

Fragment of August Hill, 1969:

An interesting part of the email was that I actually had a photo of "Snow World" from a scanned slide that I have here.  Written on the slide was "Der Schnee Wald" instead of "Snow World", but I am pretty sure those are the same.

Scanning Postcards and Statements

I added two more sections to the Ruth Dicker photos over at Picasa.

Statements and Bios

Postcards

The postcards are pretty amazing, many of her best paintings.  If anyone is interesting in buying postcards please email me.  I think I will sell packets of 20 for $20.  Some are more rare than others, but I will include a good selection from those available.

Orange Paper Moon

In mid december I was still looking around for a gift to get my brother. I had this idea of finding him an early abstract Ruth Dicker painting, but didn't know how I was going to make that happen. A woman in Sacramento contacted me with a great painting and she shipped it. Everything worked out great. Here it is, Orange Paper Moon from 1962: