Thursday

It's crit night tonight, so I worked on the beach painting first. I thought at first to give the painting a rest, but yesterday I went by the Southam Gallery and they informed me that they told the client "The artist was working on another beach painting and it would be ready next week!"

How fun, looks like I really do need to get this one done, so I worked on the figures today, just to have it ready for the scrutiny of the critters tonight. Critters is a term we give the members of the group, since we all critique. Here is my invite for the session tonight, remember I am in charge of the email notifications. This morning I sent out a simple "Crit is at my place" notification..........well that didn't go over to well!

"Dearest fellow crit members,

Forgive me for my short notification of the crit gathering earlier in the morning. I was reprimanded by several critters on the cold, heartless and uncaring way in which it was delivered by a simple two phrased invitation.

In this day and age when life speeds along like a German autobahn, lightning fast emails and blog remarks done in a split second, we sometimes forget to slow down. The very concept of a easier way of life, when only horse and buggy was our preferred mode of transportation to visit our neighbors and loved ones. We yearn back for the days gone by, heralding back to a simpler way of life, when we churned our own milk fresh from the cows and built our own houses from the timber in the backyard.

Maybe, just maybe, it takes that horrific, blood curdling scream of the autobahn crash to show down our way of living. To dig a pit and bury the remains and say good by to our technological life style.

May I be the first to offer a warm welcome to this evenings crit session at our hand built cottage, fresh hay has been thrown down behind the threshold and the kettle put on to boil by the hearth. Come, take off your shoes and put up your feet. Drink a warm mug of ale and lets reminisce about the years gone by.

Please disregard the brutal fact that this invitation is being sent by electronic transmission, instead of by swift horse and rider."


Before I forget, let me show you what I did this morning after the coffee.

I used my kids as models and gave Victor a sail boat.....now doesn't this say "childhood innocence" Well, we shall see what the critters say tonight.

The Amsterdam painting was brought out afterwards and I worked on some of the background boats on the left and right side of the canal. Also a few highlight were thrown in the water, I still need to spend some time working on the blue of the canal, its going to need more green on the right side.


I have been taking step by step photos of the painting in progress and sending them off to Larry, my web site designer / guru of all computer programming questions. He wanted more shots of it during the process to make a smoother transition from image to image. I just hope I haven't clogged up his in box with thirty of so images........

Richard Boyer