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Continued from page 27 artist,” remembers Bodnaryk. “He was the first person to buy a paint- ing. That's quite flattering to have your high school art teacher buy a painting from you. He encouraged me in every way he could.” Bodnaryk, one of the rare artists who paints full-time, also credits long moments spent at Framer’s Gallery for helping him discover who he could be as an artist. “I would go wandering into Framer’s Gallery. Before I was even showing there, I always went there and looked at the paintings on the wall and thought ‘T’d love to do that.’” Tracey Strong, co-owner of Framer’s Gallery with husband War- ren, remembers those days well. “We first met lan when he was in early high school. He’d come in and look at all the art, particularly the wildlife pieces, trying to figure out how things were being done. He’d buy supplies. Every now and then Td get to see a piece, and I thought even then, ‘This kid has talent, ” Now, Tracey tells people interested in his work “If you love it, buy it now. I think he’s got a great future ahead of him.” Until about a year ago, Bodnaryk’s work was exclusively wildlife. “1 did just that for 15 years,” he explains. “I decided to take a year off completely and expand my creativity. There were a lot of things I wanted to try and do. This year I did a lot of still life and portraits to see if I could push myself.” It paid off. Bodnaryk’s release of himself into “photorealism” opened creative doors that just may have led the way to his most intriguing work yet. “I painted an eclectic mix, from corks to flowers to people, to whatever.” For “Prelude To A Dream, I had this idea of a painting being 90 per- cent black, and just the face.” The result is a gripping portrait of a girl in the “moments before a dream.” Now living in Orono, Bodnaryk still finds himself in Port Perry from time to time. “We love Port Perry and drive up to visit and take pictures. We look at the lake.” He also appreciates the growing Scu- gog art scene. “They've always had one or more galleries. The Scugog Studio Tour is one of the best in the area. I’ve gone on it a few times. Scugog has a huge arts community; there are lots of artists who come from this area,” says Bodnaryk. Including, of course, Bodnaryk himself, who recently became a dad for the first time. “That was one of the reasons I wanted to learn to do DECEMBER FOCUS.56.indd 28 41/21/11 9:28:18 AM