Karen Bonnie's Biography

Karen Bonnie's path to painting horses and what she calls "cowography" began with her childhood love of horses. This path led her to the study of western history, cowboy legends, and Native American horse cultures. Significant career stops along her journey included training retired race horses for the dressage arena, commercial photography, graphic design, and buckskin clothing design.

Bonnie credits her final step into painting to the encouragement of painter Linda St. Clair and her husband Dean and started painting when she moved to Del Norte, Colorado from New Mexico.

Since 2000 Bonnie has been painting ranch life, cowboys, wildlife, and especially horses, with a passion "in the vibrant, fluid colors that are only achievable with oil paints..." Water is a common thread for many of her works as a spiritual symbol that unites "all of us in a way that is unspoken. I am living every kid's dream, riding in these high Colorado mountains after cows, building a spiritual connection with my beloved partner horses." Her western subjects are carefully researched and based on personal experience or that of her cowboy storytellers.

Bonnie's work is shown in numerous galleries, and in juried and invitational shows. In 2004, she received the Tuffy Berg Award for "Best New Artist" at the annual Charles M. Russell Museum Show in Great Falls, Montana.

Artist Statement: I like to think that when a person views one of my paintings, I am sharing with them the sheer joy I had in painting it, that they will feel the music, dance with me, laugh with me, reminisce on simpler times. Whether or not they appreciate horses, I hope they feel the power and beauty of these perfectly designed creatures through my paintings.

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