Christopher Bonehill is an Australian Artist currently residing in the Bayside suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Chris grew up in southern Queensland and started his creative journey as a child with drawings of a variety of subjects including machinery, people, landscapes and even animals. It was clear that Chris had an eye for the detail in the subjects and enjoyed reproducing on paper what he observed during the course of a day. Chris was introduced to oil painting by his grandmother, an accomplished artist in her own right, who became his mentor for his artistic direction, be it for a short time. The evolution of Chris’s art has been influenced over the past three decades by a variety of artists and art styles, in particular with the diversity of Australian art. He enjoys the creativity and freedom of aboriginal art, the diversity of abstract, the honesty of the surreal, the openness with pop art and the complexity of portraiture.

In the 1980s, Chris completed a number of small and large pen drawings utilising the ‘pointerism’ technique (small, distinct dots of colour/black and white, which are applied in patterns to form an image). The theme of this work was fantasy-imagined scenes with everyday items filtered throughout. The majority of these works were given to family and friends as gifts as Chris had no intention or desire to sell—he saw the work as being private. Chris also painted a number of murals on walls inside friends’ houses, again for private viewing only.

Over the past fifteen years, Chris has experimented with various art media and subject types in search of that artist balance that is enjoyable, fulfilling and challenging. Although Chris continues his pointerism work with series called ‘Natura Astratta Ink’, his current preference is acrylic paint, mixed media and oil. This style is prevalent in the majority of the ‘Natura Astratta’ series, which defines Chris's style of paintings and drawings of the humble tree, presented with emotion and feeling.

Currently, Chris likes the challenges that are presented with entering specific Australian portraiture prizes such as the Archibald and the Doug Moran Prizes. Although optimistic for success, Chris paints his subjects not for the judges, rather for himself and for the subject’s mother.

Chris still sees his art as his private ‘escape' and chooses to sell his work privately and/or by commission rather than though galleries or exhibitions