Art

Chuck Bonner's Online Gallery

Paintings: Landscapes 1 / Landscapes 2 / Murals / Portraits / Wildlife / Abstract

Sculpture

Prints & Drawings

Chuck Bonner - Biography

Chuck Bonner was born in Scott City, Kansas in 1950 and grew up in the western Kansas town of Leoti. His formative years were spent in an artistic and scientific background, his father was a fossil collector and his mother an artist. Chuck attended Fort Hays State University where he received an A. B. in art and an M. A. in painting.

While at the University, Bonner worked at the Sternberg Memorial Museum where he prepared exhibits, painted scientific restorations and portraits, and prepared fossils for exhibit. This experience has helped him with his latest venture, Keystone Gallery, which he and his wife, Barbara Shelton, opened in the fall of 1991. The gallery is a combination of art gallery, fossil museum and gift shop. To enhance the museum fossil collection, Chuck has painted a 24' by 6' mural of prehistoric life in the Kansas Cretaceous sea.

Bonner has completed many other public works of art, including murals for Fort Hays State University and the Ellis County Historical Museum–both in Hays, Kansas. He also painted a Kansas prehistoric sea mural for El Quartelejo Museum in Scott City, Kansas.

In 2007, Chuck was commissioned to paint two prehistoric scenes and a tribute painting to his father Marion for the Museum of the Great Plains in Leoti, Kansas. The next year he completed four murals of paleontological and archaeological themes totaling two hundred square feet for the Stanton County Museum in Johnson, Kansas.

Chuck enjoys the challenge of commission work whether for public organizations such as museums or for individuals. He continues to produce various styles of artwork and sells to collectors throughout the world.

"Diversity is the key to my artwork, business and life. My approach to making art follows the ebb and flow of my lifestyle. I tend to get more painting done in the winter because my outdoor activities are limited. My paintings tend to develop at their own pace, just waiting for me to say they are completed. Whatever direction my artwork takes, I feel my lifestyle directly contributes to its freedom and natural progression."

Lonesome Charlie Bonner's Music

On our Lonesome Charlie page you can get information about his self-titled CD, find out how to hire Lonesome Charlie to perform, or download clips from his radio interview.

Art Links

Ray Troll's Web Page: The site of "fishy" Alaskan artist Ray Troll. He did the artwork for the book Planet Ocean, in which the gallery and its owners are featured.