THE LAYERS OF A WRITER
Keyhole Conversations is proud to present the art of award-winning author, Bonnie Tharp. As you view the slides below, consider the feelings her paintings evoke and how her selection of subject matter, use of color and brush strokes, and movement within the composition capture a love of family and an artist steeped in tradition and enduring values.
In her writing, Bonnie Tharp evokes strong images with words, layering the scenes in her novel like the layers of paint she applies to her art work. It is easy to understand how this writer won the 2011 coveted Coffin award for her novel, Feisty Family Values.
Bonnie has selected a few of her personal pieces to show today, which includes pen and ink sketches and oil paintings.
When asked how she was drawn into art, here is what she had to say.
“I was drawn to art from a very young age. As a toddler I doodled on any flat surface, or margins of the newspaper, it didn’t matter. My grandmother pasted all my little drawings in a notebook and gave it to me when I was an adult. When I started grade school, I discovered I loved to sing and my voice wasn’t too bad. All through high school I sang in chorus and with our church choir. It was with that choir that we toured Europe singing in churches in Germany, France, Holland, and Austria.
“I tried playing guitar but never learned how really. I had a beautiful, but cheap guitar from Woolworth’s that had metal strings that made my fingers bleed, so I quit. Throughout all this time I never stopped drawing and painting. I often used art to express my feelings growing up. I was a writer, too, and kept a diary. BUT, that didn’t work out well, because I didn’t censor my writing and my stepsister was nosey. I didn’t get back into writing until after I graduated from high school and started college.”
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
—Dolly Parton
A special thanks to Free Web Images for their clip art
Explore posts in the same categories: Kansas Authors/PaintersTags: art, artist, B. D. Tharp, Feisty Family Values, paintings, writer
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Keyhole Conversations 
January 20, 2012 at 11:50 pm
[…] it out! Kansas Author: Keyhole Conversations with B.D. Tharp, The Layers of an Author. Most creative people have tried many ways to express themselves. I started with art and music. […]
January 21, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Beautiful paintings and lovely article. Thanks Bonnie for sharing the news it was here.
January 21, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Anne–Bonnie Tharp’s paintings are quite exceptional. We were privileged to show off her talent. Thank you for visiting our site. We welcome your visit and hope you will visit again soon. Thank you for commenting.
January 21, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Very nice art work! The boy sucking his thumb is excellent!
January 23, 2012 at 9:16 pm
So glad you visited our site, Karen, and thank you so much for your comment. Bonnie Tharp is not only an excellent artist, but she’s a great novelist. It’s fun to peek into the lives of authors. It’s another way to see the ‘layers’ of writers. Were you able to guess Bonnie’s genre from her art work? Just curious.
January 24, 2012 at 3:05 am
Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate it. I was pregnant with my son when I painted the baby boy. My son ended up blue eyed and blond, his son, too. My grandson says it is him. It’s interesting what the muse inspires in us when we’re open to it. Have a great New Year!