Opening this past summer at Water Mill’s Windmill Art Gallery, Bonnie Zindel’s Hamptons showing has made quite an impression. Featured in the East Hampton Star and well-attended by Hampton art enthusiasts, her vivid and evocative work has been greatly influenced by the surrounding area, shaping her paintings into expressive pieces of art.
As a trained psychoanalyst, Zindel paints from the creative unconscious, translating everyday chaos, long-forgotten memories, and stored feelings within our bodies into visible works. Her contributions to the arts are pronounced, spanning over a decade as the founder of the Creative Salon at the National Institute of Psychotherapies. The salons made space for creative expression in the field via poetry, storytelling, music, and film, celebrating the imaginative energies within.
From Psychoanalyst to Painter
“Being a psychoanalyst has allowed me to delve deeper into my interior world and tap into my creative unconscious. It’s rather elusive and cannot be commanded; I have to be ready to listen,” shared Zindel, whose work as a psychoanalyst has deeply impacted her painting.
“I’m very attuned to picking up the feelings of others and how they influence my own emotions. The unconscious is the truest part of ourselves—home to our originality and creativity. When you paint from the intellect, it creates a different result. When I paint from that unconscious place, the painting guides me. It feels like a surprise every time as if the work surrenders itself to me. We make significant life decisions from the unconscious, often without realizing it—who we marry, the work we do. The unconscious reveals itself through dreams, and painting is a perfect manifestation of that dream-like state because it comes unbidden. We dream our paintings and paint our dreams,” stated Zindel.
Zindel has explored color and light to reach her creative unconscious, letting her impulses guide her work on the canvas. Further freeing herself to explore, Zindel prefers to leave the easel “at home,” sharing, “I take large canvases outside and paint on the ground, sometimes on my hands and knees. I love feeling the grass and earth beneath me, and smelling the fresh air while I work.”
Hamptons’ Influence
Having studied painting at the Art Barge with artist George Negroponte, who suggested Zindel paint on a larger canvas, Zindel dived into ultramarine blues, cadmium yellow, crimson, and magenta, mixing colors and using rags to rub, blend, and wipe away paint to expose the layers beneath.
“Sometimes, I let paint drip down the canvas. If I leaned the canvas against a tree, I would try to capture the shadows as they moved across the surface.”
Zindel’s time at the Art Barge provided her with an opportunity that sparked her imagination, with the atmosphere buzzing with creativity as people stood at their easels, deeply engrossed. The artist shared, “The bay in Amagansett is calm, with a blue sky above and shifting clouds pulling me outside. The scent of the sea permeates my being, and the clear light inspires me, transforming my work.”
Beyond Zindel, the Hamptons have also inspired other great artists, such as de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner, with the area’s golden, beautiful light and ethereal landscape. However, it is more than just light for Zindel.
“It’s not just the light; it’s the entire environment. You’re painting in this exquisite place, hearing the birds chirping, crickets buzzing, and the honking of geese flying in V-formation. At 5:30 p.m., peace and serenity settle in, and it’s that deep connection with nature that allows me to access my interior world.”
Sharing Her Work
Sharing her private paintings and opening her personal world has been daunting for Zindel, who also shared that her exhibition at the Windmill Art Gallery has been thrilling.
“As people came in, they engaged with the work, and I think they connected to it. Painting is private, but once it’s shared, the viewer must bring their own experience to it. It’s like meeting halfway—I put so much of myself into the painting, and then I let it go, hoping the viewer will bring their own 50% to the experience.”
