For some painters, having their art stolen is a sign of prestige.

Picasso, Van Gogh, da Vinci – they’ve all had their work stolen, paintings that could be sold on the black market for millions of dollars.

Local painter Karna Bonwick isn’t so lucky. She had a painting stolen for her upcoming show at Collective Works, and probably won’t get much in return other than a few headaches.

Bonwick left the piece outside her apartment in Victoria, as she’s done many times, to let it dry.

Neighbours had been fine with it, she said. But when she left a three-foot by three-foot painting out recently, it was gone within a day.

“I just hope that whoever took it is enjoying it and just didn’t throw it in the garbage,” she said.

Currently going through a “landscape” phase, Bonwick’s paintings feature dreamy landscapes, long open fields and old cottages deep in the forest.

A former student at the Victoria College of Art and Design and the Glenn Howarth School of Drawing, she described her more recent landscapes as having a “contemporary” feel.

She noted her work has been called “moody” in the past.

“They do have sort of an old-world theme to them,” said Bonwick, 41.

“Some of them do come from my imagination. And I sometimes start with a photograph and end up changing it completely.”

Having done a lot of figurative work in the past, she has moved into the landscape stage of her painting life.

“I’ll probably revisit the figure again at some point and I’m sort of moving into the abstract a bit more.”

Citing such masters as Rembrandt, J.M.W. Turner and Francis Bacon as some of her notable influences, Bonwick has only recently become more serious about her painting after somewhat of a hiatus.

By day she’s a dental assistant and a single mom, meaning time for painting and fulfilling creative urges can be tough to squeeze into her schedule.

“If you’re in my position, where I work nine-and-a-half to 10-hour shifts as well, you have to be obsessed with art, because if you’re not you won’t do it,” she explained.

“I feel that that’s what I’m meant to do, so my day job pays my bills for the moment.”

The stolen painting, still missing at press deadline, was unfinished and didn’t have Bonwick’s signature on it or a coat of varnish, which painters apply for durability.

But she said still sees a silver lining in this whole ordeal.

“Part of me is definitely flattered that maybe someone liked it so much they just had to take it and put it up,” she said.

On her website at karnabonwick.com she further explains why she paints, usually featuring nature or the environment for certain reasons.

“It is my desire to remind the viewer that it is our responsibility to protect the beauty we see in nature and to remember that we are a part of that beauty.... my hope is that the viewer is challenged by the work and chooses to ponder issues that are important to us all.”

Bonwick’s art will show at Collective Works, 1311 Gladstone Ave. starting Jan. 2. The gallery is a collectively run spot by local painters.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 to 8 Friday and Saturday and 11 to 6 Sunday.

patrickb@vicnews.com