Finally back to the park!

For the sixth summer I have returned to Sibley Park to paint from life.

This is day one of painting from 8:30-12:00.

I found a spot in the shade and the light changes were noted.

This is a 30" X 40" canvas with some medium sized brushes.

It is very exhilarating to watch the light in the garden and I literally had to slow down my pace.

I've noticed that they haven't taken as good of care of the garden this year and maybe the recent severe weather has beaten down on it. July is the month to work and the flowers are coming .....

bukowskipainting.com

One more before the frost.

William Bukowski

The Path (again).

This painting is two days old and I have hopes of getting this done from life. Some of the flowers are dying and the leaves will be falling. I have to get as far as I can given conflicts, rain, and the seasonal change.

I may be working on paper and on smaller canvases, we shall see.

The cool summer has been great for painting.

The set up at Sibley has been very convenient.  I can have my easel and table on the new paving stone path.  It is cold when I start and hot when I finish.  The light changes as I switch between three different canvases.  My sessions usually go from 8:30- 12:30.  I treasure each day as the summer slips by.....

Today I finished the middle painting, so I will adjust tomorrow.

The Garden is peaking.

The garden is peaking  and the weather has been fantastic.  Every day things change slightly or in some cases -things change radically(in terms of growth).  Rocks are hidden, new flowers emerge and the challenge is on...     it all ends too soon.

My main worry now is running out of canvas, out of paint and most of all, out of time.

Bukowski Painting- Larger Sibley

William Bukowski
oil on linen 2006
Large -Sibley Path

The is one of the larger garden paintings besides the Pathstone Living Commission. I expect that to change in the near future. I had been busy this fall with the altarpiece for Reformation Lutheran in Portland. The large scale gives you more possibilities with the brushstrokes and paint. At times I am tempted to add figures or a narrative. I will start with big.....

Bukowski Painting- Happy New Year!

A new year begins and it is time to get busy.
This is actually two paintings pinched together. I am using a little bit broader brush keeping it simple. It measures 40" X 60" with both canvases together. It gives me a little more scale with easier portability.

The new year reminds me of how much we have to be thankful for, and what is ahead. I expect to paint up a storm, work larger, looser and keep developing the image of the garden. Years pass and it is important to keep growing as an artist.

Bukowski Painting- Decorating the Residence

New Beds- Late Summer
2007 oil on linen

The Minnesota Governor's wife, Mary Pawlenty saw my painting in the State Fair and requested a painting of mine to hang at the Governor's residence. I worked with her assistant and came up with this painting. It is on display in the governor's residence on Summit Ave. in St. Paul. The house is nicely decorated for Christmas and I think the painting will hold it's own in the collection. I like the fact that it is of Sibley Park and Sibley is the first governor of Minnesota.

Bukowski Painting- In Progress

William Bukowski
Peak Summer-Morning
In progress 2008

It is funny what a few new brushes can do to help along a painting. This is the scene every morning
of summer in late July. I am working on the streams of light that come in in places in the painting.
The layering of the Russian Sage is very complicated and the hot spots add an interesting contrast.
This one is wet on the easel.

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- 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- Garden Path

William Bukowski

oil on linen      2008

Shadows on the Path

Certain paintings fall together faster and easier than others.  This was the last painting I started of the summer.  It isn't the last one I finished, but the last one I started.  Some outgrew me before I had finished on location.  I like the motif of the path because it literally takes you  into the painting and can sure metaphorically as a life.  At a certain point you go into the painting, but you can take an obscured right or a clear left.  Both are uncertain, but you will take one or the other.  You can linger with the light and flowers in the middle but at some point you have to keep going.  There is more to see if you go to the right and more flowers and a path through the trees....more light, more color, more brushstrokes....

Bukowski Painting- End of Summer

The garden is dying and school starts on Monday.

  It is sad to see summer end.  The garden is still on the crest of full bloom but starting to loose the blossoms.  The Sibley Park Garden is the best it has been in the four years that I have been painting it.  The variety and fullness and care has been outstanding.  I can't wait for 345 days until it is at it's peak again, so I have to consider the digital "sketches" I've taken as subject matter.  It does evoke the memory of the garden.  It is a poor substitute for standing in the sun on a random August morning racing with the rising sun to catch the effects of light on the greenery.  The sun always wins the race, but it is really fun to be in the running.

Bukowski Painting- Painting from LIfe

Does it really matter to "paint from life"?  It is kind of an archaic activity from a pre-technological age.  The romantic idea of the painter going out with the palette on his/her thumb and a straw hat and doing a Van Gogh or Monet.....

why?  what is the point?

It only matters in that it is a way for the artist to connect with light and space.  It is a way to convert feeling into brushstrokes and try to evoke the experience of seeing or being- right now, right here.

But, it isn't for everyone.  I wouldn't try it if I were you.  Stay in the studio, make stuff up, play with ideas and forms....leave the out side to the old fashioned and out of touch.  

Bukowski Painting- The Mural Progresses

Dutler's mural is really coming along.  It is my largest painting that I didn't paint.  Malia and Laura have done a great job of recreating my Sibley Park motif on cement block in direct sunlight.  

The space has been turned into an outdoor bar area and is still "in progress".  After spending so much time at the real park, the giant painting looks very inviting.  After a while, you don't notice the cement block lines.

The painting can be seen from 169 as you come into Mankato from the north.  You can stop in, see the mural and bowl a line.

Bukowski Painting- Panic painting!

The garden is dying, the light is changing and I have meetings all day long!  I am approaching the final days of painting of the summer.  I still have next week, but it is clearly the end.   It has been productive, but it all goes too fast.  The best garden painting was only for about 10 days in the beginning of August.  It is hard not to panic and try to go too fast.  I did document the best 10 days in a series of digital images that may inspire a larger more complex series.  But nothing beats standing outside in the park.

Bukowski Painting- A Rough Start

William Bukowski

Sibley Park

30" X 40"

Oil on Linen

So far I've decided to call this one "a rough start" at least so far.....  I am looking into a full garden with flowers changing and growing every day.  The light changes in minutes, it is hot with the sun shining right in my face.  It is extremely challenging.  Sometimes it is very annoying when this kind of painting is written off as out-dated and old fashioned.  The process is very alive.  It is not as easy as the end results would suggest.

I do feel privileged to be standing in a park staring at little brushstrokes blowing in the breeze. Sometimes the hardest thing is to be patient and let the painting paint itself.

Bukowski Painting- Hitting Your Stride

William Bukowski

Full Sun, Full Garden

2008     oil on linen

Finally the garden is peaking and I feel like I am hitting my stride with painting from life this summer.  My ideas have outstripped my canvas and paint supply.  Hopefully this will fuel some large works this fall.  The painting depicted is not finished, but so far I am happy with the quality of light and brushstrokes.  I think the next painting should be in the shade.  At least the heat and sun keep most of the bugs away.

Bukowski Painting- Beginning and End

William Bukowski

Summer at Sibley Park

oil on linen

30" X 40"

Painting in the garden in the morning has been hot, but it has provided me with some great images and the conditions have been nearly perfect.  I finally finished a summer painting from life, and I started another this morning.  So here they are:  beginning and end.   I really like the beginning and with this painting I am hoping to keep it looser and bolder.  With the end,  you can see my typical finished Sibley Park painting.   Eventually I'll be somewhere in between these paintings.

Bukowski Painting- One Fine Day!

Fresh Start

Today was one of those days.  I started a new painting around 10:30 am and when I quit at 12:00 I had this painting.  Of course it isn't done, but it is a great start.  The flowers are finally in.  

It was one of those days the brush worked like you think it will and the paint went on easy.  I didn't quite cover the canvas, but what fun!  If everyday could go so easy and natural....

Bukowski Painting- Finally, it's summer!

The summer is finally here.  Erik made his pilgrimage to Sibley Park for his annual painting trip.  It was hot and the flowers are still a little behind, but it is like going into another century.  After ipods, imacs, high speed internet, and the virtual world, it is really refreshing to stand in the hot sun and listen to birds and fountains.  You see real light, feel real heat, real bugs and smell real oil paint.  The effort it takes to perceive the world sometimes feels like a lost art or at least a unique experience.  Everything is from secondary source.