Continuing our series on getting to know NLAPW’s newest members, today’s Art of the Week features Bonnie Benschneider Olson of the Pikes Peak Branch, CO. Welcome, Bonnie, it’s an honor to have you as a member! Scroll down to see some of her art and read her art career.

Bonnie has also recently designed a new logo for the Pikes Peak Branch!

Bonnie Benschneider Olson had an early introduction to art and photography and was supported in her interests. Her father, L H Benschneider, was a commercial photographer and teacher, her mother a Pen Woman since 1960 was a prolific painter, writer and sculptor.
Bonnie grew up in Colorado in remarkable natural surrounds. Being immersed in art and the beauty of mountains and love of animals, led her to a genuine desire to express her love of beauty with her own art. She began teaching art in her early twenties and continues to share and teach and create a wide variety of art in pastel, water color, oil, acrylics. She shares her skills with her staff and volunteers at her “memory care” day care center for seniors with cognitive challenges.

Bonnie has a degree in Fine Art and Education from the University of Colorado. She continues to study and develop as an artist through continuing study with various artists through the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. She uses her technical skills and artistic expression to create one of a kind commissioned portraits. She is also developing several books based on her mother’s vast inventory of litergical paintings and vintage Colorado watercolors as well as her mother’s collection of Broadmoor Art Academy lithographs and her father’s inventory of Time-Life photos and Alexander Film archive photos.