Bonnie Broitzman received a BA from North Central College in Art Education and an MA from Hamline University. Her love of art was greatly influenced during her time in Europe in a graduate art history program and from Wassily Kandinsky’s book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”

Bonnie’s first on-location Watercolor Workshop was in Bayfield, Wisconsin where she met and became a fast painting friend of Karlyn Holman, an art teacher gallery owner. That one event changed both their lives. Five days later they both had promised to be advocates and encouragers in each other’s adventures with watercolor. Bonnie exchanged her Austin, Minnesota teaching position to be Karlyn’s co-instructor on international art adventures. They have made more than thirty-three international painting trips together. Bonnie has also organized trips to Italy and Spain for her own groups.

Like most artists, nature was first and foremost the motivational inspiration for the subjects of Bonnie’s paintings. The spontaneity of watercolors on wet paper has since become important to her Intuitive Painting Practice. On becoming a more global artist, on-location experiences have provided the opportunity to develop and improve her skills as a landscape artist.

Her recent “Intuitive Watercolors” have received a blessing from each of these separate influences. The abstracts have better control over the possibilities of color variations and compositional design. The on-location paintings are more personal and exciting. With each new painting, whether abstract or a personal reflection of realism, Bonnie has an opportunity to redefine what I have to say more clearly in color, more defined in line, and shaped with uniqueness not seen before in painting. This creative adventure demands a broad perspective, skilled practices, and a passionate desire to say something about yourself, your world, and to say it beautifully.

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Michaelin Otis is a nationally known artist, workshop leader, art show juror and author. She owned and managed Avalon Arts, a gallery and teaching studio in White Bear Lake, MN for 18 years. Her well received book,”Watercolor for the Fun of It – Painting People,” was published by North Light Books in 2002. She is a contributing author for “Drawing and Painting People – The Essential Guide”, and has illustrated 10 children’s books. She is featured 3 books on by Karlyn Holman, Splash 9, and Nancy Reynor’s Acrylic Revolution”. Her compelling portraits have been featured in local and national publications, on book covers, in magazines and on CD covers, as well as in an invitational equine exhibit at S.P.A.S. Gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June of 2005.

She has written articles for several magazines, including “Watercolor”,” Artist Magazine” and “Watercolor Magic”. Her work has been featured in many others, most recently in “Western Art Collector” and “Southwest Art”. Michaelin has won numerous awards in juried shows across the country, and has her signature membership in the Louisiana Watercolor Society, the Taos National Society of Watercolors and Artists Changing Tomorrow.

As an instructor for H K Holbein art materials, she teaches at trade shows around the country and she teaches a yearly workshop in Yucatan, Mexico for over 20 years, as well as several workshops in Guatemala. She is currently represented by Rogoway Turquoise Tortoise Gallery, Tubac, AZ.