Kathleen Dunphy OPA
Kathleen’s early art education included workshops by Kevin MacPherson and Dan Gerhartz. In 2000, Kathleen was awarded a full scholarship at the prestigious Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where she was mentored by artists such as Craig Nelson and Brian Blood. She maintains strong ties to the Academy, where she has been offered a faculty appointment and participates in the annual Alumni Auction. Further study with Scott Christensen and T. Allen Lawson helped hone her skills and refine her own unique style of painting.
In 2003, Kathleen designed and built her own studio in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, where the pristine setting of her new home provides endless inspiration for her work. Kathleen’s landscape paintings can now be found in galleries from coast to coast. Her honors are considerable and include important juried shows in California, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, and Maine; Best of Show from the American Impressionist Society; an Award of Excellence from the Oil Painters of America; seven California Art Club Gold Medal Shows; seven magazine articles including being featured in Southwest Art’s plein air issue in 2009; the Federal Duck Stamp Competition; Birds in Art; Arts for the Parks; Grand Prize at the Acadia Invitational Exhibition in Bar Harbor, Maine; and many others. She has attained signature status with the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society and Laguna Plein Air Painters. Her highest honor to date came when she was selected by the Plein Air Painters of America as a guest artist for their October 2011 exhibit. In just over a dozen years, she has earned an impressive and growing reputation with galleries, private collectors, and art magazines across the United States.
In the spirit of passing on the gifts of her artistic abilities, Kathleen began teaching in 2005 and is a much sought-after workshop instructor. Her engaging style of teaching and one-on-one instruction garners high accolades from her student artists. She has also served as a judge for several art competitions. While her current passion is still to paint nature every day and produce a limited number of high quality paintings, she is now working on a book about her process of developing a work of art from field study to finished studio painting.