She was a founder in 1916 of the Los Angeles Modern Art Society, one of the first modernist groups to form in the region.

She studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) in New York City and André Lhote (1885-1962) in Paris,[1] where she participated in several exhibitions.

[4] Dunlap was an early member of the California Art Club, first exhibiting with the CAC in their 2nd Annual Exhibition held November 22 – December 6, 1911 at Blanchard Hall, Los Angeles; she had joined with about thirty members, including eight other women: Helma Heynsen Jahn (1874-1925), Mary Ann Van Alstine Bartow (1848-1924), Alma May Cook (1884-1973), S. Henrietta Dorn Housh (1855-1919), Helen Hutchinson (born 1866), Louise Elizabeth Garden MacLeod (1857-1944), Lydie G. Price, and Elizabeth Waggoner.

[9] In 1919 Dunlap did art shows with Caroline Bowles, Henrietta Shore, William Cahill, Edouard Vsykal and Luvena Buchanan under the name California Progressive Group.

[7] Dunlap travelled to Mexico in 1927 with fellow artist Shore, who had gone on the urging of photographer Edward Weston.