Friday, October 25, 2013
Staff report
Youngstown
Fellows Riverside Gardens has acquired a new watercolor painting by internationally known artist Gary Bukovnik.
Titled “Fellows Riverside Gardens Iris” (60 x 120 inches), it is the third in a series of floral watercolor triptychs by Bukovnik that hang in the D.D. & Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center at the gardens, 123 McKinley Ave. on the West Side.
Funds to acquire the artwork were contributed by community supporters through the Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens.
Fellows Riverside Gardens, a free public garden operated by Mill Creek MetroParks, attracts nearly 400,000 visitors each year. The Bukovnik painting is an integral part of the growing botanical art collection of original works on permanent display, according to a press release from Linda Kostka, marketing director for the park system.
Bukovnik, who is known for his floral watercolors, first connected with flowers as a young boy in his grandmother’s garden located in Ohio. He now lives in San Francisco.
Bukovnik was once asked in a published interview why he paints flowers. “It’s not an option,” he replied. “Flowers choose me. I tried years to escape. Flowers are the vocabulary of the language that I speak.”
His work is displayed in galleries across the United States and can be found in many public and private collections around the world.
To learn more about the artist, go to GaryBukovnik.com. For information about purchasing his paintings, contact the Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland at 216-621-0178.
The Davis Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The adjacent Fellows Riverside Gardens, operated by Mill Creek MetroParks, is a botanical display garden open daily free of charge from dawn to dark.