Karen Bonnie was born in Colorado, Wisconsin in 1951. An American Western and equine artist known for her realistic oil paintings that capture the beauty, power, and spirit of the American West, with a particular mastery in portraying horses. Bonnie grew up in the Midwest, where summers spent on her uncle’s farm ignited a lifelong passion for horses and animals. She began drawing them as a child and later channeled that love into a professional art career. In her late 40s, she moved to Colorado, settling near the dramatic San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where the rugged landscape deeply influenced her work. She has also lived on a ranch in Hondo, New Mexico, and while retraining retired race horses for the dressage arena as a hobby, she expanded her commercial photography career into advertising and graphic design. In 1991, Karen drew on her knowledge of ancient and traditional techniques to found a buckskin garment company. She won "Best New Collection" for her designs at the 1999 Western Design Conference in Cody, Wyoming. Although Bonnie specializes in equine art, painting horses with meticulous attention to accurate conformation, movement, and liberty in the natural Western settings, her subjects extend to broader Western themes, including ranch life, landscapes, portraits, and wildlife. She works primarily in oils and has taught workshops on equine painting.