My Family History

About Joan (Christiansen) Bonetti

I emigrated to the U.S. from Denmark with my family (parents, brother, grandparents, and aunt) when I was 4 years old. My grandfather, Edmund Christiansen, moved our entire family to the “new country,” because an artist friend of his had been writing that America had endless opportunities.  

Growing up, I remember the walls of my parents’ and grandparents’ Santa Barbara homes. They were hung with the paintings her Farfar (father’s father in Danish), Edmund Christiansen, had painted. Some were originals, but many were studies of the masters he loved (Van Gogh). I remember being in elementary school, seeing Van Gogh’s The Sower, and being excited that my very own grandfather was so famous that his painting had been printed in a textbook! When I excitedly asked him, I found out my grandfather was not in fact the famous artist being printed in a textbook and he only painted the master’s paintings to study the colors, brush strokes, and compositions. He explained he never signed them or claimed they were his original work.

Nonetheless, beautiful paintings continued to line the walls of my home and filled my mind with colorful images. Growing up, I continued in the family tradition by completing a degree in fine arts from the University of California. Today, I live and work in beautiful Southern California.

I continue to dedicate my life work to my grandfather by following in his footsteps. I do so by studying the techniques of masters and recreating the scenes of everyday modern life. I pride myself in delighting my clients with a scene from their own life to hang on their walls as if it were a museum piece. My hope is to revive the lost art of traditional painting as a way to capture what we hold most dear in life.