Bukowski Painting- 3 Piece Painting

William Bukowski
3 Piece Garden

oil on linen (in progress) 2009

This is a 3 part painting that I am preparing for a show at the APW Gallery. It is a foot in the door type show in Queens.
I answered an email invitation. The artists are allowed 5 pieces in the show. So I have 2 more to go. I think this threesome works pretty well. Charis is going to help me out since there is a pretty good chance I won't get to see the show. The gallery plan is to pack it floor to ceiling. Look for 5 little sections of Sibley Park.

Bukowski Painting- Panoramic Garden

Panoramic Garden
November 2008
detail
oil on linen

I have finally started a larger painting using loose and large brushstrokes. With this painting, I am laying on very brushy paint and gradually sharpening the focus. It is totally fun. I think it is important to find your images, but also to realize the best size and type of mark. I am looking for "big" things in the future.

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- 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- 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- Brushstroke Bouquet

William Bukowski     detail     Garden in Full Sun

The garden series has been essential for me to paint in these past four years.  I drove into Sibley Park in the summer of 2004 and pulled over in front of the garden almost as if it were scripted in a movie.  I got out of the car and set up my easel and for the past four years, have painted nothing else.

This detail is one that is in progress.  Because I love the full garden of mid-July, it is painted from a digital print with the memory of the experience playing a part.  Nothing beats a brushstroke bouquet.

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.

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.