'I started colouring in to escape abusive marriage, then it became £1m business'
A woman in her fifties has overcome debt, marital abuse and divorce by turning a passion for adult colouring books into a £1million business.
Despite not having drawn since school, Bonny Snowdon, 52, became a professional animal portrait artist in her mid-40s after her daughter bought her a colouring book and pencils at the height of the adult colouring book craze in 2016.
The mum-of-three from Ripon, North Yorkshire, used colouring books as form of escapism from her abusive marriage.
"Creativity is a portal to another world," said Bonny, who has more than 200,000 followers on social media.
Bonny began colouring to help with her mental health, before realising her talent for drawing with coloured pencils (Bonny Snowdon)"It allows us to disappear from our everyday life - and if you don't lead a very nice life that is just the most amazing thing. It quietens the mind - busy hands, quiet mind is the saying and it's so true.
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"Creativity in any form is in my opinion essential for healthy minds. I know myself how helpful it was, disappearing for hours with my colouring book."
Bonny battled mental abuse during her 19-year marriage as her husband struggled with depression following the death of his father.
She became too scared to bring up her money worries, and ended up spiralling into £22,000 worth of debt.
"He had always had a bit of anger issues and could be paranoid but nothing that really worried me," she admitted.
"There were times where he'd put his fist through the wall but they were very few and far between. Then his dad died, and he took the death really badly, he became depressed but wouldn't get help and things would swing from being okay to really awful.
"I lived on eggshells for years, not knowing when he was going to blow up.
"It got to the point where I was scared of talking about certain subjects, money was the main one, I could never talk about it and that's the main reason I got into debt, I was too frightened to talk to him about needing to pay off a phone bill, that I ended up taking out credit cards and over time, the debt ballooned to over £22,000.
The mum-of-three with her beloved pets (Bonny Snowdon)"In the end, he started talking about suicide and even told me he had located a place to do it, which terrified me.
"I tried so hard to support him and get him to the doctors, I rang the doctors and made appointments for him and went with him but when he sat there, he just said he was fine. It was a really dreadful time."
Bonny said that he eventually left the family home and moved in with a new partner, but within a couple of years and despite re-marrying, he took his own life during the 2020 lockdown.
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Grieving her ex's tragic death, Bonny struggled to make ends meet after their split.
"When he moved out, we discussed putting the family home up for sale, but I had nowhere to live and I had three teenage children and my three dogs," she said.
"I remember being so worried about trying to find a rental property that would fit us all and take the dogs."
"I had just become a full-time artist and was not earning a huge amount of money then and had no real way of taking a mortgage on myself and paying him half the house.
Bonny knew she had to put everything into her business to stay afloat (Bonny Snowdon)"I was looking at rental properties which were going to cost more than the mortgage, and they didn't take dogs. I can remember feeling sick all the time, trying to be okay for the children and run my then very new business."
Bonny, who left school aged 15 and began her working life as a tea lady in an advertising agency before later becoming a business coach, says the struggle to survive gave her even more impetus to make sure her fledging business succeeded.
The Bonny Snowdon Academy now has 2,500 members - mainly women aged 45+ from across the UK, who want to learn how to create lifelike drawings of their favourite animals, from cats and dogs to horses and even pigs.
There are also members globally from as far afield as India, Iran, the US and Australia.
Alongside the academy, the mentor also runs Bonny Snowdon Fine Art - where she specialises in creating hyper-realistic pet portraits - now with a 1,500-strong waiting list.
With just a team of three, her two businesses are set to turn over a combined £1 million in 2023, up from £450,000 last year.
Her new life is now worlds apart from her past (Bonny Snowdon)
The artist now supports others who have suffered domestic abuse (Bonny Snowdon)Bonny's life is now worlds apart from her problem-plagued past and she says that creativity has also given her members a new lease of life - with many of them changing careers and going on to work in art galleries, becoming professional artists in their own right, or launching art-related businesses.
Through her work, she also supports York-based IDAS - the North of England's biggest domestic abuse and sexual violence charity - and is this year awarding five free scholarships to her academy for women receiving help from the charity, as well as running a solo exhibition to raise funds for IDAS.
She said: "Domestic abuse can happen to anyone at any time, mentally as well as physically.
"I wish with all my heart that these charities didn't have to exist, but sadly having experienced mental abuse first-hand, I know what a lifeline they are and I feel honoured to be able to support them."
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