To view a Bonnie Posselli painting--be it of winter cottonwoods along a river bottom, the warm flush of an evening sun over the buttes of southern Utah, or scenes from her journeys to foreign lands--is to be within the moment that Bonnie experienced.

She grew up in Salt Lake City, the eldest of six children. Family vacations included camping throughout the western states during which she absorbed the beauty and wonder of nature that is now reflected in her paintings. Her mother was a painter who encouraged Bonnie as a young adult to join with her in a plein air painting group and from there the dye was cast.

Bonnie married and had three children, one daughter and two sons. Her education during this time was intermittent at the University of Utah. There she studied figure with Alvin Gittens, an experience that was indelible and has continued to serve her. After her divorce she went on to earn a degree in illustration but soon realized that plein air painting was her abiding love and strongest asset. Bonnie never did accept a job in the commercial art field, but that training, coupled with early outdoor painting experience, enriched her depth of understanding and skill.

Her most significant and lasting influences are from early landscape painters, John F. Carlson, Edgar Payne and LeConte Stewart. Carlson (1890-1945) was a noted expert on outdoor painting from the Art Students League Summer School in Woodstock, New York. His book, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, has become the "Bible" for many students of landscape painting. Carlson's philosphy was to paint nature at your own back door and not feel compelled to travel for the "picturesque." His reverence for pure, natural landscape and his abiding love of trees has continued to inspire Bonnie throughout her career.

Bonnie has traveled and painted throughout South America. Over a span of about ten years there have been seven trips including Brazil, Argentina, three trips to Peru, Guatemala, Chili and Easter Island, and now planning another trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in November 2004.