By Jill Soens
“What drives me to paint is light flowing through the painting, making a pattern with the light, even exaggerating the light to bring out the brilliance of color so both the light and the color “dance” and “sing” across the canvas.”
[caption id="attachment_365" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption=""Waitin' on the Kids" by Bonnie Conrad. Oil, 9"x12"."]
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In the above painting “Waitin’ On the Kids” we see Bonnie’s colorist and story telling style. The painting glitters with movement, white highlighted with color, a suggestion of a shadow, depth in the skyline and the patience of a friend waiting for the best time of day. Bonnie says that “it is the values and the differences between the values and the space between the opposites that makes the design.”
[caption id="attachment_366" align="alignleft" width="280" caption=""The Honeymoon II" by Bonnie Conrad. Oil, 20" x 24"."]
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Notice the different values of the greens, yellows, browns, the contrast between the red and blue shirts, the pack horses head turned in the opposite direction while the honeymoon couple leans towards one another. And, light shines throughout the painting.
Bonnie took many, many beginning and intermediate painting classes until she gained the confidence to build her own painting style. In the end, she says she “just went home and found what is me”.
Bonnie will teach a Beginners/Intermediate painting workshop March 29,30 and 31st, "Making Color and Light Sing in Your Paintings" and we, the gallery staff, can’t wait. This will be our fifth workshop and we can hear the laughter rolling down the stairs from the second floor, see the changes made in the students work from just the morning to the afternoon, hear the discussion as they go out to lunch together, and at the end of the third class, we can see remarkable change. We are sure that Bonnie’s class will be filled with all of the above, including light and singing color.