Vonnie was born in Clyde, Central Otago, she has a Fine Arts Degree from Canterbury University and is a Post Graduate of Massey University.

She has worked as an illustrator for the University of British Columbia, Canterbury and Massey Universities and is the Illustrator of the "Maketu" series of children's books by Taramea Publishing.

Vonnie's paintings celebrate the colour and light aspects of what are unique New Zealand landscape compositions, particularly the Manawatu. International Exhibitions include, Vancouver, (Canada), Missoula, (Montana), (supported in part by a Palmerston North City Council Creative Arts Grant) , and St Louis, (Illinois). as a result of her International Reputation she was awarded a Resident Artist Scholarship to Southern Illinois University in 2006.

Vonnie has exhibited widely in New Zealand both as an invited artist and solo exhibitor.

"I paint because I do not know how not to!

Painting is both an obsession and vocation.

Growing up within the surrounds of the Clutha and now the Manawatu rivers mean water described gorges and plains are so much a part of who I am. Overwhelming light, skies, seasons, and landforms allow me enormous compositional scope. I am convinced there is a connection between painter and landscape that is emotionally intimate. My particular connection is the Manawatu river and the way old macrocarpa and Nikau punctuate this regions' landscape.

My endeavour is to construct beautiful paintings, with that little extra something, born out of the gift I have been given."