FREE BIRD

Ilona (Lonnie) Benzel

I have a BA in commercial art and have been painting all my life. Early on I worked in oils, then acrylics and now mixed media. My husband passed in 2005 and I lost interest in the work involved with oils. I moved to FL and picked up a set of acrylic and some canvas at a yard sale. I painted those for a year or more until I took a class at the Ormond Beach art gallery and learned to paint with alcohol inks. I mix them with either charcoal or acrylics because there isn't white or black inks. I don't try to make the inks perform as watercolors, they are an entirely different medium and I generally have an idea or photo to work with, then drop, drip or spread colors over the paper and let the inks do their thing spreading deep colors with little direction from me. I rarely use a brush unless I add acrylics or do the background. I can sell without frames, that's the least expensive. They'll come in a stiff envelope, signed by me. If you elect to have the frame as well I need to buy a box the correct size, pad it with bubble wrap and ship it thru USPS. The cost will be much higher than without a frame. Most framed art have plastic instead of glass to prevent breakage.

Moon Shadow

Ilona (Lonnie) Benzel Hi! I graduated college 1980 with a BA in commercial art, spent 10 yrs in print shops, 10 years in newspapers-the weekly was the 2nd largest in the state of NH, The Concord Monitor. From there I landed in the president's office at NHTI, a state-owned college. I created all posters, flyers, brochures and re-designed the catalog from a mess to a high-quality well designed work of art. I'm a big dog girl and have always had a German shepherd or two, or eight. Fostered for rescues, volunteered at shelters, took in crazy kittens for shelters until old enough for adoption. I trained every dog off-leash on my own then went to an intermediate class to introduce distractions. I began with oils in NH, after my husband of 26 yrs passed I moved to FL and lost a desire to paint until I picked up some acrylics at a yard sale and began painting with acrylics. A friend suggested we try an alcohol ink class and I really enjoyed the freedom of letting the inks decide what direction the artwork would take. I did not use much control. If I wanted it to look like a watercolor I would use watercolors.

I painted this when living in Florida, most of the acrylics I have done came from there. Moon over the ocean.