Bukowski Painting- Opening the Park 2007

William Bukowski      Opening the Park     Sibley Series       oil on linen       2' X 4'         2007

This painting was one of the first of the summer of 2007.  The problem with painting a garden in Minnesota is that the garden isn't really ready until July and after about 10 days it starts to die.  I had become too impatient to wait another year for the great 10 days, so I have been developing the series year round.  This is the second painting from this spot.  The "Opening" is meant to be the curve of the path opening to the layered space as your eye goes to the background.

Bukowski Painting- Flower Lane 2005

William Bukowski

Flower Lane

30" X 40"

oil on linen    2005

This painting was done on location at the park in Mankato in the summer of 2005.  It was extremely hot that summer and it was a battle to withstand the heat and humidity of a Minnesota summer afternoon over a period of several weeks.  The temperature was routinely in the 90s, and I needed an umbrella to stay out of the sun.  I like it looking back, because it is one of my earliest works that show my current interests in masses of vegetation and growth rhythms.

Bukowski Painting- The Path 2007

William Bukowski

The Path 

40" X 30" 

oil on linen     2007

The path through the garden is a painting that is part of the Sibley Park series.  I like the idea of the path as subject as it relates to life and life experiences.  The garden concept has been to look at it as an ideal place of tranquility and beauty. In this series I want it to function as a metaphor for paradise in a spiritual sense.  So this painting is really about life and the goal of paradise.

Sibley Park is in Mankato, Minnesota, U. S. A.

Bukowski Painting- Summer Growth 2008

Summer Growth  

Oil on linen 

4' X 2'   2008

Summer Growth is a painting that I witnessed but that I have been working on from digital images.  The same time of day as my recent images, morning around 8:45 am.  In this painting I am once again trying to work with the rhythm of growth in a bush of Russsian Sage and some lillies.  It is easy to get lost in the paint.  I like the space and the upper edge giving way to the park.  You enter the painting from below, go up and over to the slight edge of the path.  At the time of this writing, I haven't really finished the painting yet.  I need to work larger.

Russian Sage- Sibley Garden 2008

Russian Sage-Sibley Garden  2008   4' X 2' oil on linen

This is a recent painting of the continued series of Sibley Park paintings.  With this painting I am standing in the morning looking into a bush of Russian Sage.  The foreground turns into brushstrokes while the background has more park and allow you to have a sense of place.  I am after a sweeping sense of space over the flower bed.  The light changes so fast that you normally wouldn't see this for more than a few minutes.

I am trying to develop a flow to the movement of paint that is like the growth patterns of the plant.

Path in the Garden

This is a painting that I finished the summer of 2007.  I painted it from life at Sibley Park in Mankato, Minnesota.   This park has supplied me with all of my images since 2004.    

I really liked the vertical format and the layered space.  It was something I hadn't done yet.  I usually worked on it from 8:30- 11:00 am until the sun changed the light too much.  I probably worked about 2 weeks every morning on it. The garden peaks around the third week of July and then starts to die.  So this is the garden at its peak.  It actually led me to paint several vertical paintings since then.

Path in the Garden    2007  oil on linen      48" X 24"

The Art of William Bukowski

This is a website that will feature artwork by the artist William Bukowski. Bukowski is an art professor teaching at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota.  On the side you will find links to other sites that reference him. The most prominent is his video channel on Youtube.  If you want some travel ideas try

http://bukowskiartarmy.blogspot.com.