Ronell was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. She grew up in a home blessed with a constant presence of art on many levels. Her mother, being a painter and an opera singer, introduced her at an early age to this world. They had a farm outside of town and among giant heaps of salt gathered from salt ponds fed by 94 windmills pumping incredibly salty water from the earth were livestock and an abundance of fresh produce. "We were organic without even knowing what "organic" was.

She graduated from college with a Bachelors degree in Biochinetics and Physical Education and moved to Johannesburg where she became a news editor with the South African Television Broadcasting Corporation. After working for a company that unexpectedly shut down and thus in need of money, she completed numerous commissioned works for friends in Johannesburg. This brought the realization that selling art could pay her way to the US. She then sold her little MINI Cooper for enough money to buy a plane ticket and spread her 22 year old wings toward Los Angeles in 1987. Doing commissions along the way, she managed to get by until she got her work-permit. After that, teaching elementary school for a few years earned her a precious green card.

Ronell continued to do commissioned paintings for renowned Architects and designers like Ardi Travangarian with the Arya Design Group in LA, celebrities like Burt Reynolds and corporations like the Sinclair Broadcasting Group in Baltimore. In 1997 a trip to Italy inspired her to start painting for herself and she was fortunate to sell them out of her home studio to private collectors as soon as they were completed.

One of the dreams steering her toward the US was pursuing a career in the film Industry and she subsequently set out to produce films ("Evolution" Steven Spielberg), write screenplays and all of this while painting part time.

After having her son Christopher in 2001, she made the decision to paint full time. They left LA and moved to Nashville in 2004. "I love Nashville with all my heart and the sense of community and values it holds reminds me so much of the town I grew up in."

She sold one of her large oil paintings at the Legends Ridge Home Parade in 2007 and then some more later at the Annandale Home Parade. This ispired her to put works together for her first solo exhibit in Nashville, in her own gallery , Ronell & Co. which she opened in October 2009 in Nashville.

She is currently writing songs, painting full time at her home studio in Brentwood and raising her little guy.

"There is such magic in combining story, structure, balance, contrast and above all light in the dramatic way Hopper, Repin and Sargent did. I strive for a little piece of their heaven and the moment I capture the specific "light" I set out to portray, I feel that sublime sense of satisfaction. I love to paint large paintings... I guess it's my love of film and the "Big Screen" that is still bubbling through. I can't wait to see some more of this road songwriting and art is taking me on but I have to say..... I truly love the sights and sounds along the way!"

Also visit me at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ronellventer