Breckenridge Texan

By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan

The Breckenridge Fine Arts Center’s main gallery is currently filled with the colorful artwork of mother and daughter Bonnie and Sabrina Siebert of Woodson. From dancing girls and Paris street scenes to bright fish and stylized horses, the “Shared Roots, Separate Strokes” exhibit will be on display through March 16.

• • The BFAC is located at 207 N. Breckenridge Ave. and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit the website www.breckenridgefineart.org or call the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center at 254-559-6602.

This exhibit is the first time the mother and daughter have shown their work together in the same exhibit.

Bonnie, who is originally from Texas but lived in Germany for several years with her husband, said she has been artistic all of her life. “Probably in about the fifth grade, when they give you those little tests, what you’re going to be when you grow up … I was going to be an artist or a florist, one or the other,” she said. “Oh boy, my parents were so disappointed. What will become of this poor child? But anyway, oh yes, I have always loved art, and I really don’t know why; I didn’t come from a particularly artistic family or anything, but I was just lucky, I guess.”

Through her artwork, Bonnie Siebert seeks to communicate her positive outlook about life.

The prediction came true, and Bonnie pursued the life of an artist, studying art at the University of Texas and with private instructors in Texas and Mexico.

“It was really fun to grow up in our house, because there wasn’t ever a white wall or a plain surface,” Sabrina said. “If it was a cupboard or a tabletop or anything, she’d be painting on it. So it was really a shock when I got out in the real world and moved into my first apartment and there was nothing on it. It was, you know, just white.”

In the 1980s, the Siebert family moved to Bonnie’s grandmother’s house in Woodson. Her German husband fell in love with Texas, so they stayed.

Bonnie said she finds inspiration in books, as well as other artists’ work. When she sees an exhibit by a famous artist in a gallery or museum, she is inspired to go home and create her own art.

“I can’t wait to go home and paint, not because you think you’re going to ever produce anything like what’s been produced through the ages, but just the fact that art communicates so strongly when you see something beautiful. It just makes me want to go home and try to catch a piece of something that, for me, is powerful, energizing, enlightening or comforting. Then it makes me want to go home and try, not always successfully, to make that visual in some way.”

But, she said she mostly finds inspiration in everyday life and she has a tendency to look on the bright side of things. “I think it’s harder to be positive and enthusiastic, especially in our day and age,” Bonnie said. “It’s much easier to be pessimistic and grim and black and portray that. That’s the easy way out, I think, and the hard way out is to challenge yourself to a more positive expression of what’s beautiful around you, still, and there’s a lot there, as far as I’m concerned. So … that’s what you’d like to do in your paintings, give people some comfort, some idea, some startling exclamation point to what could be a drab day or a drab moment.”

Sabrina arrived at her art career on a different path than her mother. Although she grew up with Bonnie’s artwork all around her, Sabrina first started painting in her mid-30s as a hobby.

Then, after working out of Los Angeles in the costume industry for a while, she moved back to Woodson.

Sabrina Siebert’s earlier work often captures Texas wildlife in serious situations.

“So for a number of reasons, I came back home and just settled again and started painting because I didn’t have anything else to do,” she said. “And I was just really at a kind of a dark place in my life. And my favorite thing to do was go hiking in the woods. And I’ve always loved animals, and so for whatever reason, that manifested as me painting wildlife and Texas wildlife mostly. But I didn’t want to do the normal, you know, the beautiful wildlife portraits of animals when they’re gazing into the sunset and peaceful and quiet. I’ve always liked them right before they’re fixing to kill you, with a look in their eyes. So I would do these kind of snarling, fierce portraits, and it didn’t really go over that well in art shows, I got to be honest.”

Her art evolved to be more stylistic but still featuring animals, often in conflict.

“But now I’ve changed again,” Sabrina said. “That was all me training myself to paint. And then now I’ve gotten involved in the horse show world, so I’ve been doing a lot of horses and more western style art, because I’ve been back for so long, and I love it. And I find a lot of the colors and things that I like, tribal and ethnic patterns that I used to use that were kind of inspired by India, translate right into some of the Western Native American-style stuff. I’m not trying to borrow too heavily from that, but they just blend together really well.”

The mother and daughter artists, along with Sabrina’s husband and 3-year-old daughter, share a house in Woodson. Bonnie has a small studio where she paints, and Sabrina has set up her art area in the dining room in the middle of the house.

“What’s great is to walk in our house, which is always in total chaos with all the decorations, so-called decorations, and there’s a big canvas in the room, the minute you walk in, where work is taking place,” Bonnie said. “And rather than having a totally orderly existence over there, I just think, to me, it symbolizes how you really need to live your life, making something, looking at something in process; at least it’s not stagnant, that’s for sure.”

Both Bonnie’s artwork, left, and Sabrina’s, right, often make use of bright, vivid colors. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Bonnie Siebert, left, and her daughter, Sabrina Siebert, in the main gallery of the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center, talk about their art exhibit that is on display. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

The exhibit “Shared Roots, Separate Strokes” will be on display at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center through March 16. The BFAC is located at 207 N. Breckenridge Ave. and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Cutline, top photo: The artwork of Bonnie Siebert, left, and her daughter, Sabrina Siebert, is currently on display at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center. The Sieberts are from Woodson, and this is their first combined exhibit. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)