press release august 2010
(< Return to Press Releases)CSMA's Mohr Gallery Presents Watercolors by William Dunn
Opening reception & artist talk on Friday, August 20, 6-8 pm
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center in Mountain View presents Watercolors, by William Dunn. The exhibition will be in CSMA’s Mohr Gallery from August 13-September 20, 2010, with an opening reception and artist talk on Friday, August 20, 6-8 pm.
Dunn typically prefers a loose style and enjoys painting a variety of subjects, but gravitates toward taking urban landscapes and trying to capture the underlying mood and atmosphere of what he feels are otherwise unremarkable scenes. Many of the images in the Mohr Gallery exhibition will reflect Dunn’s interest in capturing with watercolor this essence in his subjects in the many places around the world where he has painted, including Fiji, Canada, Japan and the U.S.
William Dunn was trained at San Jose State University and Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles (now Pasadena). He has has taught watercolor and design extensively at De Anza College, Cupertino, and Foothill College, Los Altos. In his mid-career he taught graphic design and was the department chairman at the Academy of Art College (now called University) in San Francisco. For many years, as the private business owner of William Dunn Design, Dunn did graphic design, display and corporate identity projects for many companies, including Sunset Magazine & Books, Stanford University, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Tandem, ROLM Corporation, and others.
Dunn is heavily influenced by and indebted to many past and present artists, including Winslow Homer, Dong Kingman, John Singer Sargent, Francis Livingston, Dick Cole, Brook Temple, Christopher Schink, and Joseph Zbukvic. He is a member of both the American and National Watercolor Societies and the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society.
In both 2008 and 2009, Dunn was awarded first place out of 350 entries in the watercolor division of the University Art Open Competition. Two of Dunn’s paintings were selected for inclusion in the 2010 print edition of Best in America in Watermedia.
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center is committed to providing Arts for All, regardless of age, level, background or economic means. The non-profit, founded in 1968, reaches 40,000+ people annually providing classes, lessons, camps, in-school programs (Arts in Action, Music in Action), concerts, exhibitions, lectures and free community events. In Jan 2004, CSMA opened Finn Center, Silicon Valley’s first-ever center for music and arts education and the school’s first permanent home since its founding in 1968. CSMA is among the top 10 schools of its kind in the US.
CSMA’s Mohr Gallery is located at Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, and is open Mon-Fri, 9 am-7 pm and Sat, 9 am-3 pm. The Friday, August 20 exhibition opening reception and artist talk with William Dunn (6-8 pm) is free and open to the public. Info: see www.arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800, ext. 306.