Bonnie Golden
No. Fort Myers, FL - United States
Bonnie Golden - Fine Artist
Member Since: 02/27/2012
BONNIE GOLDEN BIOGRAPHY
Bonnie Golden was raised in Andover, Massachusetts and moved to Southwest Florida in 2003. After graduating from high school in 1970, she traveled to Europe, studied in Zurich, explored East Africa and worked at her parent’s manufacturing business, silk screen printing. Her mother, Dorothy inspired a passionate love of nature, music and reading. Her father, James encouraged her to pursue photography and airbrush painting. Throughout the 1980’s, Bonnie immersed herself in the experience of esoteric yoga, traveling to an ashram in India and residing there for months at a time. Sri Ganesha was her first illustration of Hindu deities and was chosen to grace the cover of John Grimes book Ganapati Song of the Self when it was published in the United States and in India.
With an art career that has run the gamut from airbrush fine art to graphic design for laser engraving, Bonnie’s current focus is acrylic painting and mixed media. Her trompe l’oeil can cover a wall or a canvas, but must be termed fine art. If Bonnie needed a word to describe her work it would be “verisimilitude” or the quality of being true or probable. She loves the play of sun and shadow--making the subject matter look three dimensional, alive or glowing with reflected light or its transparency. The challenge of commission work stretches her in unexpected ways.
Living in Southwest Florida gives Bonnie the opportunity to use vivid colors, contrasting the opposites of the color wheel, warming shadows with unexpected tints and adding sparkle to highlights. Constantly observing nature provides an amazement of our birdlife, wild animals, tropical plants, spectacular sunsets or towering summer clouds. Many of her paintings were created for the walls of Florida homes or for those who dream of living there.
Bonnie's international experience and exposure provides her the foundation for a wide range of ideas and inspiration. Whether the subject is a coral reef, a castle in Italy, life in the mangroves, an Indian temple, or a perfect beach setting, her goal is that the painting look alive; a moment caught that provides a bit of peace or beauty in a hectic world. She works on a painting until she falls in love with it and then moves on to the next subject that lures her, always trying to improve technique, evolve and satisfy her mind’s eye.
