By: Mark Jenkins
Offhand and archetypal at the same time, the late Raya Bodnarchuk’s artworks closely observe and affectionately celebrate daily life. The local artist and longtime teacher (who lived from 1947 to 2021) counseled her students to “do something you love every day,” advice that serves as the title of a commemorative show at Gallery Neptune & Brown.
From 2013 to 2019, Bodnarchuk made a small picture each day, beginning with drawings that later evolved into a series of more than 1,900 gouache paintings. These are mostly bright-hued studies of nature as it manifests in the Maryland suburbs: moons, flowers, leaves, trees and many sorts of domestic and not-very-wild animals. Some of the 200 examples on display are rendered in simple outlines, but others are modeled and shadowed realistically.
The streamlined cats, birds and other creatures seen in the artist’s paintings echo the forms of her earlier sculptures. A selection of about 20 of these, mostly from the 1970s, complement the show’s pictures. Usually made of cast aluminum, the small figurines are sleek, but with rough surfaces that resemble concrete. They appear ideal for placement in the sort of garden Bodnarchuk tended daily.