[2] At this school he was encouraged to paint by Wynona Mulcaster, and made a mural of the prairies named Open Spaces.

[2] Bonli married Elsa Pederson (born 6 September 1930), daughter of Danish parents who immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1927.

[3] Bonli studied with Illingworth Kerr and Luke Lindoe at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts in Calgary, Alberta.

He then went to the Art Center School in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, studying water colors and fabric design.

[1] Bonli returned to Saskatoon and worked at Clark's Interior Furnishings for four years while giving evening classes in art.

[1] At these workshops he studied with Jack Shadbolt, Joseph Plaskett, Will Barnet, Clement Greenberg, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Lawrence Alloway.

[4] Then aged thirteen, she had planned to take lessons from the well-known landscape and figurative Ernest Lindner, but he was on sabbatical that year.

The firm provided interior design services and the store sold gifts and bath accessories, imported Scandinavian furniture and window coverings.

[2] Later he opened two more stores, both called "Henri The Second", which sold factory over-runs and designer furnishings.