"Biddeford Pool"
Bonnie, a Detroit resident, attended the New England School of Art in Boston and refreshed her artistic interests with well-known watercolorist Ruth Taylor, a former Pittsfield resident. She also studied with Paul George through the Pemaquid Workshops. She has been showing her work since 1992 throughout Northern New England in shows and galleries. "Painting takes me to a world of my own," Ross said of her career. "It gives a sense of permanence to a moment or a feeling that you may never experience again."
Where a photographer is left to work with what is apparent and available, Ross has the option of enhancing her capture of a natural scene. A lack of light or shadow can be altered and interpreted through her paintbrush. "When you sit down to create a piece, it's a challenge to capture the right elements. You need good composition, all the basics of art. There are rules, but there are rules to be broken," she said to achieve your goal, an effort to draw the viewer's eye to the real focus of the work. It could be the coloration, the shadows, the light, but there is an effort to use the composition to draw the right reaction and view.
As a teacher of watercolors, she encourages her students to plan their work through sketches, to plan good composition and what you want to achieve with it. "Once it's there, it becomes more difficult to change it," she said of applying paint to paper. "When people view your work, they need to focus on a center of interest. Doing sketches you can plan how it will go on the paper, and you'll have more success." Ross chooses to work with watercolors for the transparency and light it brings to the work. "It can create surprises," she said. "When you put water in the paint goes on the paper, it doesn't always get the results you had in mind. You learn to work with it. That's a challenge. If you don't work with it, and try to change it, it can look overworked."
The rewards in being an artist comes from the feedback, the purchases, but no matter how long you continue to create art, every artist will admit to "the doubt thing," that feeling "is it art?" As an artist and an art teacher, Ross is a strong advocate of arts in education. "With the technology for delivering world information, our young people can easily become overwhelmed and confused. The arts allows a way to filter and express who we are, want to be and feel about our world.
"Art is a way to share our experiences."