Bonnie Larden is a self-taught, professional artist living and working in Ballina, New South Wales. Growing up on a cattle ranch in South Texas, USA, Bonnie has always held a deep love for animals. She originally worked towards becoming a veterinarian by completing a degree in Biomedical Science at Texas A&M University. Moving towards a career as an artist in 2017, Bonnie was able to combine her love of animals with her second passion of creativity and interior design. As she considered an artistic style that would set her apart from other artists, she found inspiration in two of her favorite enjoyments from life.
Bonnie actively participates in her local community markets and has exhibited her work in galleries around the Northern Rivers, NSW area. She is also represented by Australian online galleries and sells her work globally, including Europe, Asia, and the United States. She has been a finalist in the Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award and the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize and has won the People's Choice Award in the Coraki Art Prize.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I have always been drawn to the beauty of worn textures, crumbling walls, and the colors that bleed through while being distressed by nature or age. This is an ongoing theme in all my paintings, building up layers of paint and textures then washing and scrubbing them away at the surface. I like to juxtapose the untamed wild with designed interiors to create an element of surprise, with the aim to evoke a sense of imagination and interpretation in the viewer. I also have many other subjects that I like to explore with, including still life paintings, and landscapes.