BIOGRAPHY

Bonnie Folkins studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University and at the International School of Art in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.  A native of Sackville, New Brunswick, she has pursued landscape and figurative painting using traditional techniques in watercolours and oils for over forty years in various corners of the world – Italy, Portugal, Asia, India, Australia and South America.  Her work can be found in corporate, university and private collections: www.bonniefolkins.net.

She is a member of the world's first international association of equestrian explorers and long distance travelers, The Long Rider’s Guild, having ridden horseback over 1100 miles (1,700 km) in a single journey through Mongolia in 2009 and over 2000 miles in Kazakhstan in 2010 and 2011; her page there is http://www.thelongridersguild.com/bonnie.htm  

ARTIST’S  STATEMENT:

“Influenced by my mother’s love of photography, I have become dedicated to the art of the portrait.  A trip to Mongolia in 2007 presented a life-changing experience for me; I discovered an ethnic minority of nomadic people clinging to a traditional lifestyle in unforgiving weather and environmental conditions.  To give something back to the Kazakh Mongolians who influenced me so profoundly, I became determined to make a visual narrative - a documentation of the Golden Eagle Hunters of Bayan-Ulgii Aimag.

In India,I am interested in the life of the the Sahdu and in the labourer and the farmer.  Also in India, but more often in Portugal and South America, I have been inspired by the spirited Romani people.

All cultures have been kindly and accommodating toward me and it is my hope that our mutual friendships can be felt through my representations of their images.  If eyes are windows to the soul, it is my wish that the viewer will have a chance to see into their world".