Bonnie GRETZ

Bonnie grew up drawing, inspired by her father, who was a wonderful artist. He also inspired her to learn about and love the natural world. She earned a BA in Art from San Diego State University. After a long and satisfying career working on the Barbie Doll ™ brand at Mattel Toys in Los Angeles, she moved to Portland, Oregon, then to Whidbey Island in 2011.

She has had two goals in mind for retirement: The first was to immerse herself in learning even more about cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) since first meeting a local Southern Resident Killer Whale named Taku, in 1994. She has been a volunteer naturalist, via Orca Network and Sound Waters Stewards, on a whale watch boat, and a docent at the Langley Whale Center, on Whidbey Island. The second goal was to dive back into art, and discover ways to not only enjoy the challenging process of learning how to paint, but to convey through her art, her passion and concern for these magnificent, charismatic creatures, and hopefully spark an interest in them.

She works in acrylics on canvas and fabric, colored pencil, and graphite pencil.