About the Artist
About Me
Born in NYC, studied at Parsons School of Design, worked as a textile designer for European based companies until 9/11 determined it was time to leave NY.
Headed to St. Croix in 2001, where I rediscovered my painting jones and nostalgia for the smell of turp and linseed oil from my days in art school.
After 15 years of living on an island, detached from input and stimulation, here I am in Asheville NC. Round 3 here we go.
Asheville: The North West of The South East 
November 20, 2007 at 1:58 pm |
this is beautiful bonnie, congratulations on your blog.
December 8, 2007 at 12:09 pm |
Hi Bonnie!
Your paintings are wonderful, Just like the artist!
Well done
February 15, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
Dear Bonnie,
It is delightful that you took a moment to leave your sweet comment about my Molly and the Happy Cow painting. Thank you so much. I am also blown away by your beautiful works of art, my favorite being When the Rooster crows at Dawn. Your sense of design and use of color and contrast is inspiring. Beautiful works of art. I am in awe.
Marcia
http://mbaldwinfineart.blogspot.com/
May 4, 2008 at 1:31 pm |
Hi Bonnie:
Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading it. I’m excited to see and read about your art work created on this beautiful-sounding island. Awesome!
Best,
Paz
May 4, 2008 at 1:32 pm |
P.S. Beautiful photo of you!
Paz
May 4, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
Thanks for visiting my site, Bonnie. I intend to come back here again and again.
May 4, 2008 at 1:49 pm |
p.s. I’m glad what you found there spoke to you. Thanks for your generous note.
May 4, 2008 at 2:16 pm |
Paz- thanks so much for the re-visit. Yes, this island is uniquely stunning in its’ geography and its’ humanity. Great combinations for any artist. Bring your camera and visit this place.
PS- the photo is the work of a supremely talented photographer here at D&D Studio, Christiansted, VI.
I just showed up- he did the rest.
Rick- I’m honored- and now, better be motivated to produce again, knowing you’ll be back! This is the peer classroom I most appreciate now.
May 15, 2008 at 8:11 pm |
I have a great affinity for the artist both in terms of ability and genetic similartity.
She never ceases to amaze me…
Noel
June 8, 2008 at 12:10 am |
Seriously. This blogging thing is going to explode my mind. I do this ridiculous photograph of a 20 minute microwaved potato and end up here in St. Croix with an artist as beautiful as her landscape and paintings. I’ve just come from Nathaliewithanh’s site and so, through her art and beauty, I really am coming here from Paris.
I cannot paint a lick but love hearing artists talk about how they approach their work, and the accidents of their art that turn into the art itself. Sometimes I try things I read about. Your blog is rich with suggestions and generous detail. Your paintings of the women of the islands, the pregnant woman, the mother and her 6 month old baby…so, so beautiful.
I have to turn this computer off now. My head is swimming with color and shapes and ideas for tomorrow. Now, that is the gift you two artists have given me today.
June 8, 2008 at 2:31 pm |
Thanks Pat, and I would write more in response to this comment, but I’m bleary eyed from having just gone through your entire archive.
I’m going to elbow some of your strident fans and followers out of the way to make room for me on that list.
Love your brevity, pointedness, smart sarcasm, topics, and photography.
July 19, 2008 at 1:12 pm |
I really like the pictures you have on your site! I would love to see more of your work. Do you have a gallery on St. Croix? Or a website that spotlights your work? 🙂
July 19, 2008 at 8:22 pm |
alntv-Thanks so much for the kind comment above. ( I really enjoy your site too ). I don’t have a gallery, we really don’t have the population numbers to support one. I had 2 shows here this past winter and sold almost everything.
Best place to see most of what I’ve done is to go to the past archives. I started this blog in November of last year and oh how I love the whole premise of it.
I don’t produce enough quantity to put on a website- I just paint as I can and show it here.
Next season, come winter when our population swells some more, I hope to present at the same two shows I did last year.
Art, like music speaks a universal language that needs little or no translation. It either moves you or it doesn’t.
August 23, 2008 at 10:29 am |
Hey Bonnie! Read through your blog this morning to catch up with your doings. Glad to see you’re working in oils now! Your painitings are wonderfully loose and really catch the spirit of the islands. Do I detect some “one stroke at a time” technique there along with some yin/yang focus? :^) Bruce would be proud of you! Love your photos, too, and sense of humor often seen in them!
October 22, 2008 at 2:53 pm |
Hi I LOVE that piece called Trinidad Market Girl….Is there a way I could purchase this piece? or a copy of it?
Let me know, your work is beautiful! Thanks!
October 30, 2008 at 12:39 am |
I would love to feature your work on my blog… is that ok?
February 22, 2009 at 1:07 pm |
I love your figure paintings ( and envy where you live). Can’t wait to see more of your work.
March 30, 2009 at 3:03 am |
i looked through many of your posts. your artwork is beautiful. i especially love the limited pallette paintings.
keep truckin’. you’re artwork is inspiring.
May 4, 2009 at 11:56 am |
Bonnie,
Enjoyed your site and your wonderful paintings. I also lived on St. Croix years ago; I arrived on the island right after Hurricane Hugo and worked for Tom Hannon Co. (later absorbed by Bellows International) selling wine. I was only on St. Croix for about a year then was transferred over to St. Thomas. I met my wife at a business dinner at the Cormorant Hotel and our first date was at Dino’s (no longer in existence). I remember the French guy who was the wine buyer for Dino’s – Phillippe – was married to a terrific painter named Patty. I doubt they are still there. I later moved to Puerto Rico and got married. My wife & I were married on Nevis at the Nisbett Plantation. My wife accepted a position with her company in Europe which began a series of moves all over the world. I have been painting full time since.
I remember the small, daily frustrations of life in St. Croix but you learned to laugh and deal with it. I also remember catching glimpses of that beautiful horizontal band of turquoise and feeling lucky to be living in such a beautiful place. Though it’s nice to be living amongst the conveniences of The States, I often long for a more simpler life in the islands.
I will check into your blog when I get those longings. Thanks!
May 26, 2009 at 1:36 pm |
Hi, Bonnie – When you left a comment on my blog, I visited yours – thinking, as you said, that if Jala Pfaff thinks it’s worth the time, it probably is. And Wow! It is!
I really love your sunny, moody portraits – Your people are so alive, I feel I could sit right down and pour a cup of coffee for them and one for me, and just start talking. Your landscapes, too – you might feel rusty, but they seem sunny and fresh as could be. Good writing, too!
I also like your habit of including a photo. What a lovely discovery, this chilly Tuesday morning. Thank you for your work. I’ll be back!
May 26, 2009 at 3:28 pm |
Hi Carrie and welcome here too. Thanks so much for leaving your lovely comments.
I always appreciate knowing that the words as well as the photos keep readers interested enough to continue and coming back.
As I’ll do with yours.
June 3, 2012 at 1:17 am |
i found you again after all these years – in macy’s of all godforsaken places, hilarious and so “meant to be”. i am so glad we can keep in touch now.
June 3, 2012 at 1:26 am |
your work is beautiful – the paintings as well as the photography!
April 29, 2013 at 3:00 pm |
hi neighbor,
I like your paintings
franz (you know….transfertex)
April 29, 2013 at 3:07 pm |
FRANZ!!! What a wonderful surprise. And how are you and how are you my neighbor? Where are you living now?
September 5, 2019 at 8:55 pm |
Bonnie! Thought you had gone to Bahamas, not St. Croix, all those years ago and had you in mind lately. Sorry we lost touch! Have always had my eye on Asheville as well.
Sue Ellen
September 5, 2019 at 9:28 pm |
How great to see you pop up here! I haven’t updated this blog in a few years so this is a lovely surprise. We left St. Croix in ‘15 and really love Asheville. Very relieved to be out of the cone of terror in these awful hurricanes. And you? Send me your email if you care to so we can exchange contact info.
XO
September 6, 2019 at 12:29 am
Scrolling to your last (2009) post, I didn’t have hope I’d hear back from you. Yay! My email is same: suevannatta@sbcglobal.net Cell: 469-371-5262. You married and moved to the island, if I remember right? Still the same life for me here in Tex-ass…blue girl in a red state! My brother has a place on Anguilla, which H.Maria battered. But you are nestled safely in the lovely mountains now! I was looking at attending Penland some yrs. ago. How’s your son?