Painting from Life.

The more you look, the more you see......

You can look like the stereotype hobbyist and everyone can see your mistakes.

The light and weather can be so uncooperative that while you wait for the right light, the flowers die. 

It is easy to see why the practice of painting from life is seen as so archaic or outmoded or quaint to modern artists. 

It might take forever to feel comfortable working from nature.  And you have to actually "go outside and play" and that doesn't always fit into the concept of the angst of modernism.

The final push of the summer.

William Bukowski

Garden Edge (in progress)

oil on linen    30" X 40"

The edge of the garden looks to live for a while yet, so I am optimistic that I can finish this work from life.  Some how the summer has slipped by and school is starting.  Panic would normally be the feeling I would have with so little time left, but I can handle it.  I think I can......I think I can.......

Bukowski Painting- Mankato Sibley Park

Detail- the path in Sibley Park
2008 December

I finally bought a few wider brushes and let loose, at least so far.
The brushstrokes are part of the search for the rhythm of the garden. The subject is still the same, the so-called English Garden at Sibley Park. A winter version has not tempted me because it implies snow, cold, death, darkness and those themes don't interest me too much at this time. Who knows....

Bukowski Painting- Longing to Paint

Bukowski Painting
Summer 2008

One of the problems with real life is that you can't paint all the time. There is a host of necessary distractions you need to deal with in real life. The memory of warm light and summer has to carry you for many months. Luckily, I have a good memory.

If you like Robert Hughes check out the Mona Lisa Curse on Youtube. He rips the current art scene in New York. The problem is that art is simply investment fodder and we've lost the meaning of art and more importantly- great art.

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.

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 II

So painting from life is an iffy proposition.  When you go out and take a deep breath and look out at the world, something has to move you.  You need to find the right combination of light and form that means something to you that you want to convey to someone else.  At first you are aware of factory smell, truck noise, bugs and heat.   hmmm....when does the inspiration kick in?   and then it hits you-

Is that inspiration or the sun in my eyes?

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- 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.