Written by D.C. Thomas
Clarksville, TN – Peggy Bonnington is a masterpiece, a paragon of strength in Clarksville’s art world, and a cornucopia of inspiration. The way I see it, no one could write a better story about Peggy than herself.
In the stretch of a week, the artist welcomed me into her home, her Benfolly studio on the Cumberland River, and talked to me about her life, plants, goats, and the Phantasmagoria solo exhibit she was organizing for June.
As an artist, collector, and volunteer who ventured into the art world (sometimes alongside her, sometimes under her supervision) I’ve always recognized Peggy as a highly influential woman and a towering figure in the local art world.
Considering how her impressive resumé and the experience she accumulated throughout her life indemnify Peggy with much respect and admiration. Adding her burgeoning mind, her art, and her dignified and kind demeanor to the previous equation makes Peggy one of Clarksville’s most significant artists.
Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Peggy married musician Stuart Bonnington (born in Leeds, England/raised in Rochester, NY) in the first recognized Religious Society of Friends Ceremony (Quakers). Not long after, they moved to Clarksville over 30 years ago and have been enriching our community ever since.
To name a few of her early efforts and contributions to Clarksville’s art scene, Peggy Bonnington was instrumental in establishing relationships with business owners in Clarksville’s Historic Downtown to organize the Downtown Clarksville Association (DCA), further helped advance the ArtWalk (a.k.a. First Thursday, with Elke Allen of La Petite Gallerie); she was a co-founder of the Arts for Hearts organization, one of the founding members of Downtown Artists Cooperative (DAC) where she was also a President for three years, an artist involved in the early stages of AHDC (Arts & Heritage Development Council) and more.
When I packed my camera and scanner to visit Peggy at her 1830-built house, I anticipated with much enthusiasm seeing her in the environment where she creates and how her universe unfolds outside the surfaces on which she makes whimsical art. Peggy is art.
Her life, home, and conversations with her are nothing shy of artfully being in this world.
The life I glimpsed within three hours spent in the comfort of her home is as fairytale-like as her body of work. “They keep surfacing,” she said, “while holding onto a stack of drawings and showing me around.”
We wandered into the high-walled creative space and looked for her unframed works to scan in the art-filled kitchen.
From her studio, she led me through her two-level house, down steep mosaic steps, I felt like Alice going down the rabbit hole. Then, Wonderland.
We talked about her travels to England and her memories, and she told me about her father who worked for the American Lava Corporation as a design engineer. “I use many porcelain pieces I have from him in my art,” she said. Later she showed them to me, while holding her Oval Face mixed media artwork.
Peggy’s intricate artworks recurrently depict cats, trees, fish, butterflies, cottages, toads, portraits of mysterious humans, and motifs connected through lines and words that veritably draw in the minds of all ages to contemplate her multifaceted world.
Her abstract motifs behold compelling powers through the universal themes they evoke: love, fantasy, history, the natural world, social relevance, time, religion, society, identity, and much more.
Peggy’s art is connected to the life she and Stuart built together: their pond with koi fish, the cats, turtles, and toads wandering on the property, the trees covering bamboo-railed pathways and interconnected not only by their roots but also lines of prayer flags.
The colorful prayer flags, similar to the Tibetan ones seen in the Himalayas, peek through the greenness of Peggy’s property and suggest peacefulness to visitors. This can be felt again within her historic house from the hanging Asian coin charm on her front door to Buddha busts, intriguing Olen Bryant sculptures, and the rich gentleness of the decor: porcelain collections, musical instruments, juxtaposed rugs, cozy hearth, book-filled stair rails, various potted plants and window sills where many items harmoniously crowd to bask in the light entering this 194-year-old house.
Peggy’s elegant and witty sense of humor is easily spotted in the conversations one has with her, in her art and also in her interaction with the beloved goats living on her land, Quinn and Esme. Her children, as she’s been referring to them for eight years.
The lushness of this house fosters a sense of refuge from the city and its traffic, conducive to slow living and nature appreciation.
Phantasmagoria and Peggy’s Art Exhibit
Phantasmagoria’s opening reception at DAC was successful and well-attended by many patrons and local artists, on a sunny evening in Downtown Historic Clarksville.
I’m getting Mad-Hatter vibes, a high-school student and her friends eagerly affirmed while feasting their eyes on Peggy’s Phantasmagoria originals at DAC.
Once upon a time... now, and forever.
Peggy’s artworks appear to be allegorical, transcendental and depict frame stories that captivate eyes and hearts.
The richness of her compositions is a feast for the inner child who wants to indulge in dreams and seek out adventures.
Many of her visual narratives seem to build on or draw a straight line to European fairy tales that mesmerized generations of children and adults, works by writers and folkloric collectors such as the Grimm Brothers, H.C. Andersen, Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Andrew Lang, Madame d’Aulnoy, and many others.
Peggy’s captivating and mystical universe is built with an artistic skill that manifests joy, enchantment, conceit, and inspiration that flares one’s insight.”
Photo Gallery
