Dick Folse earned his Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Illinois State University in 1990, where he studied with notable landscape painters James D. Butler and Harold Gregor, and conducted a comprehensive externship with internationally known painter James McGarrell. He has taught art at Bradley University, Illinois State University, and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Folse has exhibited nationally and internationally, including in China and Japan. He has lived and painted in Europe; he was juried into a professional artist residency in Japan for the summer of 2016. He has received multiple show awards and recognitions and was a 2018 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist grant.

Folse lives in Ripon, Wisconsin on the Ceresco Prairie. He produces unique, original paintings in oils, watercolors, and pastels – responding to the landscape of the prairie as well as nearby lakes and fields. The work has a sense of place – sweeping skies, shifting seasons, and the quiet presence of land that evokes mystery, displays graciousness, and suggests solace and comfort; the approach harkens back to the artistic sensibilities of mid-twentieth century when painting was aesthetically straight forward and focused on how form shapes content. Often, Folse keeps paintings balancing on a line between abstraction and representation while he translates events of nature as the seasons or times of day change.

Over his career, Folse has varied painting approaches and methods to best capture the essence of place: in Palm Springs, Folse used silver and white aerosol paint with liquified graphite on hard panels to suggest the desolate, eerie vastness of the desert; in Onishi, Japan, Folse collaged newspaper article grids to canvas and used them as compositional markers to explore Asian art-influenced perspective, compact structures, and compressed green spaces; in Barcelona, Spain, Folse painted abstracted landscapes that emphasized the long city vistas, the warping visual perspectives of city buildings, and Mediterranean light, creating works with bond, energized colors. Since arriving in Wisconsin, Folse has returned to a more traditional, illusionistic representationalism in interpreting his vision of the land.

Folse is interested in the process of making art – the interplay between the objective analysis of outcomes versus the subjective expression of an experience where momentary instincts are followed. The outcome is a painting, but the process and experience are what drives the artist to generate work. To foster creativity, Folse uses multiple media such as oils, watercolors, pastels, and others to change the parameters of the visual problem being investigated.

Solo Exhibitions

Green Lake Town Square Lobby Gallery, Green Lake, Wisconsin – 2026

Green Lake Town Square Lobby Gallery, Green Lake, Wisconsin – 2025

Dick Folse Pop-Up Gallery, Ripon, Wisconsin – 2023

McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, Illinois – 2016

Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, Illinois – 2014

Kelly’s Bakery Cafe Gallery, Bloomington, Illinois – 2014

Kelly’s Bakery Cafe , Bloomington, Illinois – 2012

Kelly’s Bakery Cafe , Bloomington, Illinois – 2011

Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, Illinois – 2010

Kelly’s Bakery Cafe , Bloomington, Illinois – 2009

IAA Gallery, Bloomington, Illinois – 2008

Kettering Art Center, Kettering, Ohio – 1991

Four Seasons Art Center, Springfield, Illinois – 1991

Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, Illinois – 1991

Four Seasons Art Center, Springfield, Illinois – 1990

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois – 1990

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois – 1988

Two-Person Exhibitions

Quad Cities Art Center, Davenport, Iowa – 1994 (with painter Susan Maakestad)

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois – 1993 (with ceramicist Rob Reedy)

Residencies and Painting Trips

Eixample near the Arc de Triomf, Barcelona, Spain – Winter 2017 – Summer 2018

Shiro Oni Studio Artist Residency Program, Onishi, Japan – Summer 2016

Domaine du Haut Baran near Puy-l’Eveque, France –  2014, 2012, 2010 (2 weeks each)

Group Exhibitions

Art MidWisconsin – A Collective of Visual Artists, Caestegar Gallery, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin – 2026

Gimme A Sign!, Ripon Historical Society, Ripon, Wisconsin – 2025

Aperture 2025 at Green Lake Town Square Lobby Gallery – 2025

MWVAC at Thrasher Opera House, Green Lake, Wisconsin – 2024

Green Lake Fine Art Show (with MWVAC), Green Lake, Wisconsin – 2023

Springfield Art Association Collective, Springfield, Illinois – 2017

Kanna Fall Arts Festival, Onishi, Japan – 2016

Shiro Oni Studio Exhibit, Onishi, Japan – 2016

McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, Illinois – 2016

McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, Illinois – 2013

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois – 2013

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois – 2010

McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, Illinois – 2009

Prairie Art Alliance, Springfield, Illinois – 2009

Prairie Art Alliance, Springfield, Illinois – 2008

Window on Windsor, Springfield, Illinois – 2008

McLean County Art Center, Bloomington, Illinois – 2007

Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois – 1994

Three Rivers Festival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 1994

Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Shenyang and Beijing, People’s Republic of China – 1991

Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey – 1990

Kemper Group Invitational Exhibition, Long Grove, Illinois – 1989

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois – 1989

Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois – 1989

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois – 1989

Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, Indiana – 1988

Elgin Community College, Elgin, Illinois – 1988

Harper College, Palatine, Illinois – 1987

Permanent Collections

Arizona State University

Bradley University

Illinois State University

Illinois Wesleyan University

Ohio State University

University of Dallas

University of Massachusetts

University of South Dakota

Education

Master of Fine Art (M.F.A.), Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois – 1990

Teaching

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois (Art and Community Development) – 2010 – 2013

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois (Corporate Training in Web Technologies) – 2000 – 2004

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois (Basic Drawing, Figure Drawing, 2D Design, Web Design) – 1991 – 1997

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois (Basic Drawing) – 1989 – 1990