Shannon O'Dunn

Degrees in Geology fueled my 36-year teaching and administrative career at Grossmont College, while I pursued landscape painting in oils and pastel as an avocation. In 2000, I became Dean of Communication and Fine Arts, and worked with faculty in Dance, Theatre, Photography, Art History, Ceramics, Telecommunications, Digital Art, Speech, Painting and Drawing until my retirement in 2005. I also managed the college's Hyde Art Gallery, which offered several public shows per year, in the visual and plastic arts. This amazing experience as Dean permanently turned my life toward active involvement in the visual and performing arts. In 2009, I opened O’Dunn Fine Art, a retail gallery in San Diego, California, featuring Collectible 20th Century and Contemporary original art. ODFA put up 35 shows of various themes between 2009-2015: abstract, female nudes, mid-century modern, urban landscapes, artist solo shows and retrospectives, still life, florals, and steampunk. O'Dunn Fine Art lives on in Boulder, CO as purveyor of my own pieces, and twentieth century collectible paintings. From 2014-present, I have worked with the Borrego Art Institute annual Plein Air Invitational as exhibits consultant (2014-16), Juror of Awards (2017), Curator (Juror of Invitations) 2018-2021, and donor of the ODFA annual cash award for the event’s best pastel (2021-2025). This affiliation with the Borrego Art Institute furthered my love for supporting and encouraging working artists, working with show production staff, and providing help to buyers in building their collections. All of these came into play as I co-chaired the PSC 20thAnnual Mile High International in 2024. I am a member of Boulder Open Studios, participating Plein Air events and Studio Tours. Painting constantly challenges my ability to see landscapes and still life tableaus, extract essential elements, and to communicate those elements to others. As a geologist, portraying natural landscapes gives me an ongoing connection to the rocky underpinnings and ecosystems of our amazing planet. In my most charmed painting experiences, there is a ‘let go, let God’ feeling; the painting takes over. The experience is transcendental. When a particular piece succeeds, it is humbling, because I know I didn’t do it by myself; I was inspired by the subject in some essential way, and I am gratefully downstream of every artist who got it right. After forays into pen and ink, digital painting, watercolor, and years of oil painting instruction, I paint exclusively in pastels now, both plein air and in the studio. As with oils, pastels are forgiving, and I love having color in my fingers, rather than at the end of a brush.