Henry Bonli
| Henry Thomas Bonli | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
8 August 1927 Lashburn, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Died | 16 May 2011 (aged 83) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Artist and interior designer |
Henry Thomas Bonli (8 August 1927 – 16 May 2011) was a Canadian painter and interior designer.
Henry Thomas Bonli was born in Lashburn, Saskatchewan, on 8 August 1927, son of Tom and Esther Bonli. He grew up in a large family. He attended Dover rural school and Melfort Collegiate. He obtained a teaching certificate at Saskatoon Normal School (later the Saskatoon Teachers' College) in 1947. At this school he was encouraged to paint by Wynona Mulcaster, and made a mural of the prairies named Open Spaces. Bonli taught in a rural school for a short period. He then became a teacher in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan until 1950, when he began to study art.
Bonli married Elsa Pederson (born 6 September 1930), daughter of Danish parents who immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1927. She was a registered nurse who worked at Melfort Hospital before their marriage. They had two children, Scott and Jane. Later they divorced and Elsa remarried.
Bonli studied with Illingworth Kerr and Luke Lindoe at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts in Calgary, Alberta. He then went to the Art Center School in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, studying water colors and fabric design. While in Los Angeles he had a part-time job with the Bullochs Department Store in their design studio, where he gained practical experience in interior design.
Bonli returned to Saskatoon and worked at Clark's Interior Furnishings for four years while giving evening classes in art. Bonli participated in the first Emma Lake Artist's Workshop in 1955, and in subsequent workshops in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1963 and 1965. At these workshops he studied with Jack Shadbolt, Joseph Plaskett, Will Barnet, Clement Greenberg, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Lawrence Alloway. In 1957 he taught the young Joan Anderson at Saskatoon Technical Collegiate. She would later be better known as the singer Joni Mitchell. Then aged thirteen, she had planned to take lessons from the well-known landscape and figurative Ernest Lindner, but he was on sabbatical that year. Bonli found her an argumentative pupil.
...
Wikipedia