Bonnie Hubly was born in Houston, Texas. She began oil painting lessons at age eight. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Camack, whose house was a jumble. For her first lesson, Mrs. Camack sat Bonnie on the front-porch steps and told her to paint the house across the street. It was white clapboard with green shutters -- a subject Bonnie has returned to often. Other teachers and other lessons followed. Bonnie was chosen to represent her school in a student competition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

In spite of loving to paint, Bonnie majored in English at Southern Methodist University because the life of an artist seemed too disorderly. She did take art classes, however, and studied with Dan Wingren while he was a visiting professor from the University of Texas. She sold her first painting off her easel while in his class. She sold twelve more during her last semester in college. She also took Life Drawing during summer art classes at the University of Houston. When she brought home her painting of a life-size nude, her mother hid it under the bed!

Following graduation, she taught all subjects to seventh and eighth graders in a four-room county school. After one year, she was clear that she never wanted to do that again. In the 34-year career that followed her favorite job was as a graphic artist. Back then newspaper ads were done in ink and photosensitive washes. She began by drawing shoes. During the pot-smoking days of the 1970s, one of her funniest ads was of stacked-heel oxfords for juniors, with the headline: “Get High on Bandolinos!”

She found her best teachers to be the ads of nationally-known department stores. She worked her way up to ad director for Joe Brands, a small but exceptional store in Laredo and McAllen, Texas. Given a free hand she did her best fashion drawings. Unfortunately, within a few years photography replaced hand-drawn art.

She went to work as a secretary for a mutual fund company on the 63rd floor of a beautiful green marble building in downtown Houston. Soon she moved into the communications department where she stayed for almost 20 years.

A gradually booming stock market provided money for exciting marketing campaigns and made the mutual fund industry a heady place to work -- smart people were making lots of money for their clients. Bonnie managed print production; became the liaison with nationally known ad agencies; and achieved a long-held goal of writing annual reports.

Her final position as Director of Marketing for the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston gave her the opportunity to use everything she’d learned throughout her career to market the business school. The school was aggressively developing itself into Tier 1 status with a broad marketing plan. It was another opportunity to work with outstanding people.

Two years before she retired, she put a studio in the back yard. She now paints full time in this wonderful space. She bought a highway sign in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that said “Paradise 7 Miles.” It’s now above the studio door. For Bonnie, paradise is not seven miles away, it’s right here.

To download her resume: Bonnie Hubly Art Resume.pdf

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Bonnie Hubly, © 2008