FACes & PlaceS
The Arts 2004

Dot Bunn
by Marilyn Bullock

Dot Bunn is unique in the art world. Not only is she skilled as a decorative artist and mural painter, she is also a gifted fine artist and painter of Bucks County countryside scenes.

From her earliest memories, Philadelphia born Dot has had the heart and soul of an artist. She went to an all girl private school that gave her the opportunity to take 2-3 art classes each day. "The other girls were in homeroom or recess," she says, remembering her high school days, "I was in art class."

Dot married her high school sweetheart, Tom Bunn, shortly before he graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology. They had both lived in Bucks County for most of their lives and decided to stay "in the country," as it was known 50 years ago when Dot's father decided to move the family out of Philadelphia.

Dot and Tom raised three children: Tom, Paul, and Cyndi. While the children were still young, Dot attended Hicks Art Center and later The Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. She nurtured her creativity by doing mural painting as a hobby, something she started to do in high school.

Dot freelanced and worked for a time as an art director in a local ad agency. She later went to work with Tom, who had a commercial printing business in Southampton, PA. Dot provided logo design and ad layout services.

Seven years ago, the Bunns decided to retire from printing and Dot turned her part-time hobby into a full-time business. She now paints custom murals for all types of settings - hallways, foyers, stair landings, children's rooms, and more. In fact, it was the repeated request for children's art that spurred Dot into creating fantasy paintings. That and the project she took on for her granddaughter, Myranda. She wrote and created the paintings for the book The Raccoons' Masked Ball. Dot is actively looking to get it published.

Today, Dot is almost busier than she was when the children were little. Tom is her business manager, helping her to formalize projects and even helping with some of the mural set-up and under painting.

When Dot creates a new fantasy mural look, she will often return to her studio and capture the effect using oils paints on hard backed canvas or Masonite panels. With oils she is able to create much greater detail. To make her work available to a more diverse audience, many of her fantasy paintings are now available as affordable prints.

Dot loves her work and is passionate about oil painting, an area of her work she is trying to make more time for. Dot doesn't consider herself a traditional Impressionist painter, although, one look at her paintings might convince you otherwise. She says that her process is much more controlled than that of a traditional Impressionist. Digital camera in tow, Dot and Tom take frequent rides through the countryside, looking for the "perfect" landscape with "perfect" lighting. Back in her studio, Dot will work from multiple digital images of the same subject. This gives her the freedom to create a painting that captures the "moment of light when it [the subject] sings."

Dot is an exhibiting member of Phila./Tri State Artist Equity and has taken many awards for her oils including Best Traditional Painting at the Phillips Mill Annual Juried Show. Her paintings have hung in New York at the Salmagundi Club and the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Club.

You won't want to miss Dot's upcoming show of 40 new landscapes at Sabine Rose Gallery. The show runs from October 15th till November 17th. The opening reception is Saturday, October 16th from 5 to 9 pm.

Contact Dot via her website www.redstonefarm.com.