Bonnie Zick Boekeloo has been involved with creative endeavors since the age of three when she started studying classical ballet. She took piano lessons for eleven years and began her first serious painting effort when her brother gifted her with paints and a canvas as a teen. Although she had no prior interest in art, her love for oil painting continued through college and beyond.

Since moving to Menifee in 2001, she has become active in the local art community, including joining Arts Council Menifee that has honored her as May’s Artist of the Month.

“The Arts Council Menifee leaders do a wonderful job of providing opportunities for artists of all ages in our community,” she said.

Boekeloo and her husband of 57 years, Maury, are retired but art has become an activity they can participate in together.

“My husband backs me 100 percent and enjoys making cards and prints (of my artwork) and talking to people at exhibit receptions,” she said. “He is quite the fan.”

While raising their three children, Boekeloo’s art was limited to occasional recreational painting and a Lake Michigan scene commissioned by a good friend.

“We were sailors on Lake Michigan and enjoyed the water, sunrises and sunsets,” she said.

The Boekeloos also spent a few years in Hawaii where she taught kindergartners.

“Working with children, one sees stories,” she said. “They were inventive and a delight. I like to tell a story with my paintings – the children taught this to me. I try to feel everything I do.”

Boekeloo’s commissioned paintings have found homes in several states and Washington, D.C. Recently, one of her works was selected for the holiday card of the Inland Valley Habitat for Humanity chapter in Temecula.

“Someone handed out small squares so we could donate to Habitat,” she recalled. “When I won it was a surprise for sure; I did not know it was a contest.”

After moving to San Dimas in 1985, her art interest increased and she joined the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association.

“Entering contests and being judged takes away from the joy of painting for me,” she said. “I don’t compete – I paint.”

Boekeloo makes time to work with her oils on a daily basis – drawing from her memory, photographs or pictures of things she likes. She looks for character in her portraits and loves recreating a flower’s stages of bloom.

Many of her favorite memories have become subjects for paintings that colorfully cover the walls of every room in her Menifee home.

For more information, please visit www.artscouncilmenifee.org or call 951-290-ART1