Today we’d like to introduce you to Kerry Dunn.
Hi Kerry, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started drawing at the age of 5 when sitting on my Dad’s lap he drew a doodle… I was hooked. I have been obsessed with drawing ever since. I have had other interests, but I was always better at art than anything else. We moved to Atlantic Beach when I was in 4th grade, I attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in the 8th grade before transferring to Fletcher Senior High, graduating in 1995.
In 1999 I graduated from Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida.
During my senior year at college, I realized that as I was consistently drawing my friends in my sketchbook, as we were hanging around the dorm rooms and out on the courtyards. This was my first clue. I realized that what I really wanted to do was to paint portraits professionally. However, I also realized that I wasn’t good enough and that I needed more training.
This realization eventually led me to New York City to attend the Art Students Leave of NYC in the search of a teacher who could teach the ways of portrait painting. Seven months later though, I was broke in the Big Apple and moving back to Florida… the good thing that came out of my time in NYC, was that I met my mentor, Nelson Shanks.
It was really a stroke of luck…. but once I had found my way into his class, it was a completely different experience from any class I had ever been in before. Nelson Shanks was a master. Everything he said was gold, full of knowledge and understanding that was beyond what we could fully comprehend. We were all inspired by his leadership and his painting demonstrations of what was possible. It was the experience of being a student in the orbit of a master.
Unfortunately, my stay in Nelson’s class was short as my life back in Florida resumed, working at the Marriott Hotel in Ponte Vedra beach and painting out of my bedroom, trying to implement the lessons I learned under my teacher. Fast forward 8 months later, and I finally mustered up the courage to send my teacher a long long email.
An email of my life back home and my designs to try and get back to studying… somehow.
He replied with three sentences, which entailed “We are starting a school in Philadelphia in three weeks, I think you should be here.” You know that moment when you know your whole life is about to change?
So I quit my job, drove in my Volkswagen the 13 hours up to Philadelphia, slept in my car for two weeks, and showed up for the first day of class. It was a magical time. The energy was optimistic as so many of Nelson’s students showed up ready to practice drawing and painting exercises all day long, and then help run the new school after hours… whether that be construction, cleaning bathrooms, or running the school store, all of which I eventually did.
Slowly over the course of the next few years, the school took shape. Eventually developing a curriculum based on the methods and principles Nelson taught us. Today that school is Studio Incamminati, School of Contemporary Realism, located in South Philadelphia. I ended up training at the school for 5-6 years and have since served as a principal instructor within the core program and the lead portrait painting instructor. The school also focuses on figure painting and still life painting, in addition to portraiture.
Today, I own a house in south Philly and teach at Studio Incamminati, I have taught over 70 painting workshops across the country and a few in Canada and won numerous national awards for my paintings, including Best in Show at the Portrait Society of America International Competition in 2013, and also landing my self-portrait painting on the cover of American Art Collector Magazine that same year.
I recently also served as faculty at the Portrait Society of America Annual Conference in Atlanta.
Currently, I find myself back in Jacksonville Beach a lot helping my father and I have been living between Jacksonville and Philadelphia. Jacksonville has changed a lot in the 19 years that I have been absent. And it’s kind of like Florida is new again. I bought a surfboard, that’s when I knew I was back!
Since being back in Jacksonville I have been endeavoring to connect to the art scene here, and I am making a lot of new friends here within the painting scene. People in Jacksonville are more friendly!
I am excited to put my expertise to use in the art of portrait painting as I transition to the second half of my career and reconnect with Northeast Florida, Florida and Georgia.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh man… that’s a question. Of course, it has not always been smooth. I was poor starting out… and to be honest, academia doesn’t always pay well. You do it for the Love. And although I desire to be more financially successful, as we all do… I look around my home and my life and I feel rich.
I get to do what I love… Doing what you love has its own challenges. Every day, I paint and I practice and it’s such a wonderful art form to be a part of. Every day has highs and lows when the paint flows nice or it doesn’t.
I often feel like a monk, toiling away in some small room and living a rather simple life.
There is a price to be paid… the most obvious is that you accept to some degree to be financially humble. Humble… yet rich, if that makes sense.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an oil painter specializing in old master methods, focusing primarily on portraiture. I am among the best in the country. I can capture something or someone quickly and I can also spend months on one painting.
I am good at capturing a likeness and my paintings don’t feel static, instead, the people in my paintings could almost move. Because of the way I was taught, I am good at combining both old master draftsmanship with the color of the impressionists.
I love to experiment… and if left to my own devices, I like to continually challenge myself by painting in different ways, each time leading to a new understanding of what is possible with paint. It’s a never ending path of self discovery.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am teaching a Portrait Painting Boot Camp this summer at the CoRK in Jacksonville in August. A two-week workshop for anyone wanting to get better at portrait painting. Sign up is on my website.
One of my dreams is to travel the country painting the portraits of anyone willing to sit for a few hours. Painting all the various beautiful people who comprise the fabric of America, all colors, genders, and walks of life. Eventually, I would like to create a book and develop it into a traveling exhibition.
I am currently accepting portrait commissions.
All info can be found on my website www.kerrydunn.com or my Instagram @paintkerrypaint.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.kerrydunn.com
- Instagram: @paintkerrypaint
- Facebook: Kerry Dunn
