Bonnie White
Bonnie White - American Folk Artist Bonnie's family moved from Long Island to Canaan N.Y. in the winter of 1973. There, they purchased a 75 acre farm and ran a hunter - jumper barn called Spring Gait Farm for more than 25 years. Although Bonnie’s first love was horses, she always had an interest in art. When she wasn’t riding horses, she was sketching them. After graduating from a local community college in 1977, she continued working at the barn, but also worked part time as a compositor at several weekly newspapers. In 1987 she began working as a compositor at a daily Pittsfield, Massachusetts newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle. The following year she married her husband, Scott. Nights and weekends were spent teaching riding lessons and taking customers to horse shows. Her painting was put on hold for more than 20 years. After the birth of her third son, she decided it was time to leave her job at the newspaper so she could devote more time to her family. Having more time on her hands, she started attending craft fairs and fell in love with folk art. Wanting to decorate her home with the frakturs and paintings she had seen, she began to create her own. Her first fraktur was a house blessing given to her cousin for a wedding gift. Her first large painting on canvas was given to her mother for Christmas in 2002. The painting is of her family's farm all decked out for the holidays. Her children and sisters children are making snowmen and sleigh riding. It still hangs in her mothers home. Soon, friends and family were putting in orders for her paintings and frakturs. Bonnie's paintings can be seen at juried craft shows, designer showcase homes, and galleries as well as on calendars, puzzles, greeting cards and Christmas ornaments. Bonnie has been listed in Early American Life Magazine’s Directory of Traditional Crafts for 2006 and 2007. In 2007, Bonnie was chosen to design an ornament for the Blue Room Christmas tree at the White House. It will remain in their permanent collection. Bonnie and her husband still reside on her family's Spring Gait Farm with their three sons, their dog Misty, and their cat Dot. |
