Michael Dunlavey's Rusty World
Words: Mike Blanchard + Art: Michael Dunlavey
Arts-y: Michael Dunlavey has had a long and remarkably successful career as a designer. He started his firm with his wife Lindy, a budget of $300 and some luck. Over the years their firm, The Dunlavey Studio, was one of the most successful on the West Coast. In 33 years, they completed over 14,000 projects and were nationally recognized many times for the quality of their work. But that is all done now. Now he paints.
Dunlavey, 77, came from an artistic family and grew up in the Sacramento area. His father Edward was an accomplished watercolorist and his mother, Jean, a ballet dancer and teacher.
He began painting as a kid and showed precocious skill. He had 11 one-man shows by the time he was 19. At 19 he got a job in the art department of The Sacramento Bee newspaper where he was known as “the Kid.” He ended up working there for five years while he got his BA at Sacramento State University. And then he did two years in the Navy during the Vietnam War on destroyer duty.
When he was discharged he knew that he wanted to pursue his passion and paint. He went back to school and got a Master’s in Fine Art. It didn’t take long for him to see that there was more consistent money in the field of design.
Eventually Dunlavey got a design gig at the Graphic Center, a big printing shop in Sacramento, and it was there that he met his future wife Lindy, who was a fellow designer at the firm. One thing led to another and Michael and Lindy decided to go out on their own and start their own design studio. With luck and smart help, they built The Dunlavey Studio into a great success.
Over the years Dunlavey and his wife traveled all over the world. On these trips he took many photographs. He uses details from these photos as the basic building blocks for his paintings. His chosen medium is watercolor and his output is prodigious.
Dunlavey uses the technique of masking to make his images. He employs a special tape that he carefully cuts with razor knives, following the contour of the subject he is painting. He uses both sides of the cut. He masks off foreground elements, creates sections and then moves his masking around to get each element, shape and color the way he wants it. This technique gives the paintings a crisp, collage look. Texture is used almost like a color block. He pairs this with wet washes for sky and backgrounds.
Everything blends together to create a unique effect. There is a feeling of pop art mixed with nostalgia and patina.
Dunlavey is working with shape, texture, layout and color but also memory to create a world that exists for him.
The elements in the paintings all have meaning for him. It could be a subject he loves combined with a set of mountains or a building that has special meaning for him. Sometimes the boat or car or building evokes a memory of travel or a unique experience. Each element of the painting is added and considered with an eye trained by years of design and collecting.
The Dunlaveys have a large collection of antique and vintage toys, paintings and sculpture, which are also a source of inspiration for his work.
“We started with vintage toys,” said Dunlavey. “A lot of them are rusty, and we like that. In design the goal is to reach the customer. Now I want to keep Me happy. I can do what I want.”
He paints a lot of boats and vintage vehicles. He thinks maybe he paints boats because of his time in the Navy but there is clearly an attraction for classic vehicle forms and patina. As he said in one of his e-mails: ”I guess I have always loved rust.”
Dunlavey is a curious guy. He is interested in what is going on around him. He looks at the world as a designer (he can’t help it) but also as a painter. He sees the details and the interesting juxtapositions of our visual world. “It’s the process,” said Dunlavey. “It takes you to another place. You lose yourself.”
