Sonja Turnbull

Sonja was born in Ontario and moved to BC as a youth. She grew up in Victoria. Her creative side began developing at an early age with making paper dolls, filling up school notebook margins with doodles, making 3D decoupage artwork and spending much time journaling life’s experiences.

Her career pursuits took her to Vancouver where she worked in a large advertising firm in Gastown and later went to BCIT to complete a Marketing and Small Business Diploma. She traveled extensively through Europe and worked in England and Greece.

In 2016 she moved back to Vancouver Island to marry, raise two kids and start a cranberry farm. It was on the farm that her gardening green thumb was exposed and she created an outdoor space full of colour, texture and fragrance while providing an abundance of edibles. She began her fine art journey about 7 years ago when she had a desire to paint the many flowers in her garden and to interpret the beauty in her surroundings.

She is currently in love with the acrylics, but experiments with pencils, inks, encaustic, gouache and all forms of mixed media.

Sonja volunteers for the Pearl Ellis Gallery while working for BC Wildfire Service at the Quinsam Firebase in Campbell River.