Bukowski Painting Archives- Earlier in the Series

William Bukowski

Summer Morning #1

oil on linen   2005

I've called this the "Archives" because of the paintings that I have shown on this site, this is the first one I don't own any more.  It was done from life at Sibley Park in Mankato in the summer of 2005.  It has the freshness of the experience of being in the garden on a summer morning.  You can see the helter skelter arrangement of the flowers, the garden had been left pretty much to grow out of control.  Since then, the Mankato Park Department has worked hard to control and improve the space. 

Bukowski Painting-Trouble in the Garden

This clip shows Bukowski painting on location at the Sibley Park garden in Mankato, Minnesota. It shows what he has to deal with as he paints from life. This is one part of an upcoming documentary on Bukowski's Garden Paintings.

Bukowski Painting- Shallow Fountain 2008

William Bukowski

Shallow Fountain        2008

oil on linen   20" X 24"

This painting  is still in the Sibley Park series.  The composition focuses on the reflections on the surface of an old fountain near the garden.  It is the second version, the first one was called," In the Garden with Fellini".  

Bukowski Painting- the Process

The process of painting the garden is a learned technique that gets easier the more you do it.  You have the image, either in front of you, from memory, or from a digital "sketch" and immediately you visualize the completion of the painting.  To start you have to mark the key movements and compositional elements within the picture plane.  You have to concentrate and realize the entire work as you put the layers down.  These pictures represent 3 days or painting sessions of a Sibley Garden view.

Fountain Bukowski Painting Sibley

William Bukowski

Fountain

2007    oil on linen

48" X 24"

Sibley Park Series, 

Mankato, Minnesota

This is a summer of 2007 painting done from life at Sibley Park.  The park department added some sculpture last summer, so I had the opportunity to incorporate a figurative element to the paintings.  I have been thinking about adding figures, but it changes the painting context so much.  While I am painting in the morning, there really aren't too many people around and I have liked the paintings without the narrative that people bring to it.

Pathstone Living Commission-Bukowski Limited Edition Print

When I began the commission for Pathstone Living, I did a smaller painting of the middle section of the mural size painting.  (early spring of 2006)

 As a premium for donors to the remodeling project, they produced a limited edition print of the smaller version of the landscape.  Donors received the print from the 30" X 40" oil on linen image of Sibley Park.

The insert image of me painting was in the Mankato Free Press and was taken by photographer John Cross.  I used an umbrella to keep the oppressive heat away while I painted.

Pathstone Living Commission-Bukowski Painting Mankato

In the fall of 2005, I was approached by Jill Evans the Development Director of the Mankato Lutheran Home- now called Pathstone Living to do a large scale garden painting.  They were in the process of planning to build on to their facility and wanted a large painting to accent the new space.  Jill has seen an article about my garden paintings from a show I had at the St. Peter Art Center as reported in the Mankato Free Press.

I had been painting at Sibley Park and this facility is across the street from the park.   I did some preliminary sketches and photographed the park.  The past 2 summers I painted from life in the morning and in the afternoon worked on the large scale painting.  Bethany Lutheran College allowed me to use their studio to work on the 6' X 18' oil painting during the school year.  In November of 2007 the painting was finally installed and on April 6th, 2008 there will be a grand opening.

  It was essential for me to work on the smaller paintings from life and transfer what I saw on to the large canvas.  It all worked perfectly for me because it supported what I was doing as an artist without making concessions for a commission.