Bukowski Painting - Earlier in the Series

William Bukowski
Second Summer in the Garden
oil on linen 30" X 40"

The summer I did this painting, I started three from basically the same spot. I moved over about a foot and started a new painting. They were all done from life and I felt like I was just really discovering what this site had to offer. I like the odd hedge of shrubs with almost rabbit ear shapes. The painting was interrupted because my Dad was sick and I drove several times in between doing the three paintings to see him. A painting like this really brings back the experience of the location and the summer.

Bukowski Painting - Looking Back in the Garden

William Bukowski
Looking Back in the Garden
Oil on linen 40" X 30"
Summer 2008 Mankato

By looking back I am referring to the fake Greek fountain. We are looking back at ancient culture and how it has filtered down to the garden at Sibley Park. I still like the sculpture and the forms add a figurative element to the gardens. This painting in real life got away from me. The garden kept obscuring the view and not necessarily fitting my visual desire. I finally abandoned it. I think it works, but it was a struggle. I like the space and the variety of brushstrokes and how it fits into the series.

Bukowski Painting - Last of summer from life.

Bukowski Painting
Path in the Light
Oil on linen 2008

I had my momentum going full tilt when summer ended and school began. This painting was the last painting I started during my summer stint at Sibley Park. I could tell that the garden was dying though and recently visiting the garden. It is more like a symbol of death, or the coming of fall. I haven't been interested in portraying that theme. I have alot of ideas for works until the summer comes again.

Bukowski Painting - Away from the Garden

Altarpiece for Reformaton Lutheran-in progress.

William Bukowski

I've decided to post a work that I have been busy with since July, for Reformation Lutheran Church in Hillsboro, Oregon. This picture shows two panels in a three panel altarpiece. Luther is on the left and the large canvas represents the Sermon on the Mount. Quite challenging since I usually work from life or experience. I have been to the site of the Sermon on the Mount, but when I was there, I didn't realize I would be doing such a painting. I have enjoyed putting these images together. The third panel depicts Moses. More to come.

Bukowski Painting - Long Live Painting!

William Bukowski

Detail: Full Sun, Full Garden

I was reading about Bonnard and on a postcard he sent his friend Henri Matisse, he wrote, "Long Live Painting".  He wrote it because when war ripped through Europe and newer styles and art forms became the rage, Bonnard was looked at as old fashioned and his image oriented paintings a quaint thing of the past.  He and Matisse corresponded and encouraged each other and bought each others artwork.

In 1930 the poet and surrealist Louis Aragon wrote," It can be stated that in the near future painting will be an anodyne amusement for young girls and old provincials."  

 I glad he was wrong.

Bukowski Painting - Evaluate the Summer

William Bukowski

Full Sun, Full Garden

oil on linen  2008

As I look back at this summer I need to figure out what I have accomplished in my paintings.  I want to realize the full color experience in the sun.  I want to loosen up the brushwork and try to find the rhythm of the growth patterns in the plants.  You can really get lost in the globs both of light and of paint.  But I think I found my way.  

Bukowski Painting - Immersion

Immersion

oil on canvas

2008

William Bukowski

This one is still wet.  I was trying to look into the sun light and capture the immersion of light, leaves, dew and flowers, that you feel standing on the path.  This process was challenging because of fleeting light and changing growth.  It was also hot.  It was painting the panic of nature that goes on or "grows on" without you.

Bukowski Painting- Garden Still the Thing?

William Bukowski

oil on linen        30" X 40"

New Beds in Early Summer

bukowskipainting@yahoo.com

Some of my students and friends ask if I am still going to do the garden paintings or if I am still working on the Sibley Park series?  The series has been very rewarding for me these past four years.  The image keeps changing, the real garden is new every year.  This particular image is from last summer and the new beds were just growing.  This same spot this summer, was entirely different.  I have enjoyed going to the park to paint in the summer and working on the imagery in the winter.  Painting based on memory and a digital library forces me to think in a different way, but the paintings don't suffer.  I want to continue to improve, to feel nature and sense light and grow as an artist.  The park still does it.

Bukowski Painting- Minnesota State Fair

William Bukowski

Mattina nel Giardino

oil on linen    2008

I entered the State Fair in St. Paul this summer with this painting.  I was a little disappointed with the show in general.  There was a lot of realism, but much of it was a kind of academic realism from the 19th century American school.  The problem with it is that is seems to be based on "rules" and "how to"  it doesn't really have a place for individualism or accidents or invention.  There was also a lot of brown tones and dull color.  It didn't suit me.

I titled my painting in Italian just for the fun of it. I hope it is translated correctly.  I think is says morning in the garden.  By the time summer ended, this scene didn't exist anymore.  The flowers became gigantic and were overrun with stuff.  I was happy with the painting.

Watch for the St. Paul Art Crawl in October.