Friday

We have sugar ants invading our home, the damn things seem to be coming in everywhere. I bought some of that ant killer in a spray bottle from Home Depot and have now hit all the holes they seem to be marching up through, but sure enough after another day they find some other spot to come in!
Maybe a couple of gallons of DDT would do the trick. They seem to be after the dog food all the time. A few times the dog has seem her bowl just filled up with ants and gets a little freaked out by it


The crit went well last night. Robert wasn't there, so no glasses were broken. They liked the start of this piece here, but warned me to not take it to a detailed level. Good point, but I really need to give the house some detail, or else there isn't much to look at. The grass I tried to keep loose. I'm not too sure about the couple I added over on the right side, they may be a little too much.

As usual both of my entries into the Oil Painters of America show were rejected, that seems to always be the problem when the initial judging is left up to the same OPA member each year. They always advertise a new judge for the prizes given out at the show itself, but the initial selection of which work gets into the show is done by the same member every year. The result ends up being more or less just the work he likes or feels an affinity to. Arts for the Parks really had the best judging system, where three judges weighed into the selection of the show and as a result the final show had more diversity.

Someday they might get a clue!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Jim Peterson from the Mockingbird Gallery has been emailing me to do something different from the usual European subject matter I have been sending him in the past.

Maybe I should explain that Jim use to sell my work at the May Galleries years ago in Scottsdale. Well he started the family life and thought it best to get out of the big city and head back up to the northwest. He ended up buying this gallery from another artist and has making a go of it ever since.

He use to sell a ton of European work for me when he was with May Galleries, but I guess the people living around Bend, Oregon don't go over to Europe that much. Maybe its because they are a younger crowd and haven't traveled as much as the retired people living around Scottsdale, Arizona. You can kind of see that in the cars people drive. In a retired community you see more top of the line Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. In Bend, Oregon its more Subaru with the ski rack on the top!

So Jim told me to try painting a Schmid like farm house from the country.........@%#@, I'd rather be doing French cafe scenes, but I grudgingly gave in and told him I'd give it a try.


It's a 24x36 of a farm house I saw up in Idaho, just north of Bear Lake. As we drove past the place it looked abandoned and over grown with weeds and grasses, the perfect subject matter to paint. I blocked it in today and worked on the composition. There was this nice field of dried grass in front, so I would like to bring that up a lot in the work. The path, or what looks like a path is made up, I figured one needs a lead-in to the house or else it won't look inviting!

I'm off to do some skate skiing this afternoon. Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to get in 12 K of work-out as the kids are in their ski classes. It's good to feel that you have put the muscles to use before partaking in the wine tonight at the crit session. Rose and Nick are putting it on tonight

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Today I just worked on some paintings that were lying around in the studio. This one I added more color to and spiced up the foreground a bit. I have another vertical river painting I am working on for tomorrow. I just came from the Southam Gallery and they said that one 24x36 is more or less sold to some lawyers here in Salt Lake. They had some more leads they were working on also, so it seems like the market is doing better at home than in Scottsdale !

I gave them three more pieces to work on:








A Day in the Dunes 14x18









Walking through the Dunes 18x24








Stockholm Harbor 11x14


Sooooooo lets hope they can move these soon!!!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I'm back again. The show was rather dismal, with no sales to speak of. They did sell the 40x30 stair painting I did before the show and of course they have some leads on other works with clients. So it may just be a waiting game to see what moves in the next couple weeks............God, how I had this economy. You can see the signs of it picking up, more or less like a glacier slowly moving down the mountain.

When I was in the gallery, I spent most of the time with my easel touching up older paintings and adding a lot of color. Let's just hope that does the trick. They certainly have the inventory now of paintings.

The first couple days down there in Scottsdale it was close to 75 degrees and sunny...what a change from up here in Salt Lake. To bad I didn't really have any time to hang out in the sun. It would have been nice to just pull out a deck chair and hang out by some pool side!

I did walk around a little looking in the other galleries. Most of which seemed to be in the same boat with sales. Trailside Gallery had a show so I walked over there to check it out and noticed very few red dots on anything. I always feel like the vultures are out when I walk into that place. Eons ago I bought a resale painting of Dan Gerhartz form Pierce Fine Art, they use to be on Main street and some time ago they sold their mailing list to Trailside. Ever since I have been getting brochures in the mail.

They are to the point now of asking your name when you come in the door and then off they go to check their records in the computer " Ah, yes...Mr Boyer, he expressed interests in 2005 of this artist or that artist show!" Then she shows up again around the next corner and announces that Stan will be with me shortly, Stan is one of the agents I must have talked to eons ago.

"Hello Mr Boyer"..."We don't have any paintings of Joe Artist at this moment, but we will soon and I'll be sure to send you a copy before the bidding start" I didn't have the heart to tell Stan, that I am not interested in buying work of "Joe the artist" I'm only here to look at the show you had in peace and quiet!

I did notice a large Mian Situ there with a red dot, most likely sold for some six figure number. It would be nice to be in that league someday.

Sunday I drove up through a blizzard in southern Utah, passing a few semi's twisted up by the side of the road. All that snow added a good hour on to the drive time back to Salt Lake.


This mornings project was an older painting I got back from the Howard/Mandville Gallery several months ago, so I worked on it and took out the older figure and added a small market in the background. Above is the newer version, below is what it looked like before.


Yeah, I know, the figure is pretty lame !

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

The car is loaded up with about ten smaller paintings, the French easel and a few blank canvases for fun. Ready for the trip to Scottsdale, estimated time about ten and a half hours, unless I meet some overturned eighteen wheeler like I did last time, then it could be an extra few hours watching them clean it all up.

I’m not kidding, last time I came back up from there, just before the road starts the switch backs up the north rim area of the Grand Canyon, there was some produce truck sprawled all over one of the sharp curves. Crates of onions were broken open and rolling down the road. We waited for the police and a large crane truck to slowly lifting the mangled carnage off to the side. The driver of the rig seemed perplexed as to why the thing would have rolled on a 180 degree switch-back. A normally desolate, empty highway over the course of an hour developed quite a crowd of impatient drivers trying to call out in an area where there is no cell phone coverage.

The last few days have been a little busy, putting the final touches on paintings and watching the Winter Olympics. On Monday, Karin called me into the TV room all frantic; Sweden was pulling ahead of Norway in the women’s ten kilometer freestyle cross-country. We have a Norwegen living across the street, so tensions were high! She could hardly contain herself to the couch, hopping up and down with every movement of the exhausted skier

Finally in the end little Charlotte Kalla took the gold and our six foot long Swedish flag was hanged up high on the porch. Giggi across the street was silent, the agony of defeat.

Yesterday, it was another repeat in the men’s biathlon. France was leading with Norway in second place, but with the biathlon, things change very fast when a contestant misses the shots and has to do a penalty lap. Sweden pulled ahead on the second to last lap and with a relaxed composure shot more of the targets and sailed on to a clear victory. The flag went up again and the Norwegian was silent!

Catch you all on the flip side, I took the mac with, so I’ll update down there.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Feb. 15

Here is the last 24x36 for the show down in Scottsdale. I enlarged the town quite a bit and finished off the vineyards. Maybe I could sell it to a wine collector !

The area is the Luberon Valley in Provence and actually quite famous for its wine, although I am more partial to Bordeaux wines.

Today I've been busy with shooting all the work in jepg format for the gallery and also trying to update my web site, which I rarely do..... its always to damn time consuming. If only I could convince my 14 year old to do it, he seems more interested in just playing games with the computer. I keep telling him if only he could re-direct the interest into web designing, he could make a fortune....but no, the ultimate Lego game seems to win out every time!

Richard Boyer

Friday

We had some fresh snow two mornings in a row now, but most of that has melted away with sunny afternoons. I did feel it yesterday afternoon as I plowed through it with the skate skis. Fresh snow is always harder to glide through and a much bigger workout when you do the same distance as compared to a day when the snow has been packed down and iced over. I felt it that evening at the crit session.

I spent much of the day working on corrections.


The group hated the violet color in the background, so I switched it out for a warmer orange. That same color I brought down into the water at the bottom and also shot a ray of sunlight across the water by the boats. They felt that one of the hulls should have a shot of a different color, which I did and added a flag at the top as well. A few changes were done to the trees and rock cliffs, so that now it seems to have more color and contrast.


The next project was the girl in the sand dunes, the red bathing suit she had on, had to go. They thought it was too red on red. So now she has some blue shorts. I also moved one of the legs forward and changes some of the grass around in from of the sand. I still have some changes to do to the 36x24 village scene, which I couldn't get to today. I need to work on that over the weekend.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I started another 24x36 painting for the show in Scottsdale, they indicated maybe a landscape would be good..so I picked something from Provence. The area here is in the Luberon Valley, known for its wine growing. I would like to capture the sun drenched limestone on the ground and the rich greens of the vineyard. There was also a small sunflower field in the background which should add some contrasting color. The village of Bonnieux is off to the left more, but I might use some artistic license and add the buildings in on the left side. I have only a few days to get this all wrapped up before I leave, so the pressure is on!


I worked also on this piece and threw in some clouds with a few birds way off in the distance. I'll bring it to the crit tonight and we'll see what the wine brings out!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

You will notice that none of the kids broke their legs, although some of them really tried with the speed they flew off the jump. Here are a few shots from the wild world of sports.



It didn't really matter how much I yelled out to slow down, their minds were off someplace else. But I really think they had a lot of fun. On downhill skis this would be no problem, but with the cross country it's a different challenge all together with your heals not attached to the ski.

We did a few other games such as sharks and minnows, where I am naturally the shark and the kids all running off in different directions as I chase after them. It was more of a work out for me than them on that game! Handling ten kids can often be a little chaotic at best and its definitely something I wouldn't do as a full time job!

So Karin signed us both up for a doctors check-up at her hospital, you know the place where they examen the CEO's and look at everything from A to Z for an exorbitant price. Thank God, we don't have to pay that much just for the used car check-up service. This morning I had to go in for a blood draw and that meant no eating breakfast or coffee beforehand. So at 7:30 in the morning and half a sleep they stuck a needle in my arm and pulled out a few vials of blood. For me its a rude awakening before having my morning caffeine.


I worked more on the Hilltop village painting again today. I think the only thing I have left to work on now is the clouds, which I'll do tomorrow before the crit session. I keep wondering if some birds flying in the sky would help, it could add an interesting curve to the top half of the piece.


This is another painting I got back from the Mystic Gallery and I think the only thing I did to it was to lengthen the shorts on her and lighten up the front of the shirt she is wearing. I'll bring it also to the crit, but I have a feeling maybe it just needs a new try in a different gallery. I've had that happen before, where a painting will sit for a year at one place, but as soon as you send it off to a new gallery and new location it sell fast. So maybe I'll take it with me when I drive down to Scottsdale next week.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I spent some more time working on the buildings in the back ground and also decided on some clouds in the sky. This will give some activity to the right side of the piece. Don't mind the shadow at the top from the clamp on the easel. Its not from a UFO above the town.

There is a nice sunlight bush that cuts across the road in the low section of the painting, so that will help block off that straight line at the bottom. I'll put that in tomorrow, when I work on the bottom half. This piece needs to be done for the crit session, so I can move on to another 24x36, before I head down to Scottsdale next Wednesday.

This afternoon I was going to take over Karin's cross country ski class. A group of about ten little kids 7-10 in age, so it could be fun. I figure it might be cool to have them do some jumping. They built a small ski jump up at Mountain Dell and its a blast to watch people go off it on cross country gear! I'll stand at the bottom and pick up the pieces.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Feb. 8

This entry is a little late, but any ways its here!

Sunday was one of those relaxing days, where you get to sleep in and enjoy the morning, that is until I met Karin. She had a coffee in hand and mentioned that she needed to study for the day. Markus, our oldest was in dire need of some new pants and having not much luck with the stores downtown, my wife decided on the factory outlet stores up in Park City.

She looked at me as I was trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes, "Looks like Markus needs some new cloths and Park City would be the best spot to get that selection he need?"............ silence then followed as she took another sip from her coffee and read the morning paper. I knew where this was heading. Usually when she announces a chore that needs to be done followed by a pause, it means she is waiting for the classic unsuspecting volunteer to step in. Without thinking and may I add, half asleep. I blurted out, "Well do you want me to take him up there shopping, so you could stay home and study?"

"Oh thank you Richard" was her response before I finished the sentence.

For me shopping for cloths comes someplace between a root canal and a rectal exam form the Proctologist. It's not one of my favorite pass times for a Sunday. Luckily, Markus was thinking along the same lines. We drove up and surgically picked out the stores that would offer the best chances of filling the order. Three pants, two tee-shirts and some long underwear later, we were heading out of the parking lot back to Salt Lake. Total shopping time was under an hour, if my wife had been there, we would have been lucky getting it done under three hours!

Mondays project was a block-in for the May Gallery, they wanted a vertical piece for the show, so I decided on a view I had of the town of Gordes in Provence.


I'll work some more on it today and try to define the buildings better. There are still a few compositional elements that need to be fixed up. I'm not to thrilled about the row of houses at the bottom, that need to change!

Richard Boyer

Friday

The crit went well last night, nothing broken. I took my notes and had a few things to do on this piece.


They thought some of the figures needed work, which they did, especially the ones facing towards the viewer. A few chairs needed longer legs or perspective problems addressed and the cobblestones lacked some work with texture. I broke out the handy pallet knife for that!


Next on the chopping block was the boat painting here. Carlie thought that the whole painting needed more color. The horizon was lacking another color to break it up more, so I threw in some pink just above the trees. Also some orange was added to the rocks behind the boats and a few brighter greens in the trees. The sailboat to the right was more straight up and down, which of course they thought would be impossible with the wind. Actually, in reality it was more or less straight up, but for the sake of drama, I painted it out and put a new mast in leaning to port. A few white caped waves were also added to give the foreground more zip.

I sent both JEPG images off to the May Gallery, so they could circulate them to their clients. Ron also said he found two more 24x36 frames at the gallery, which I could use, that is if I can get two 24x36 painting done in time before I leave on the 17th.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

The sun is shinning and its warm outside. Almost feels like Spring, except for all that pesky snow lying around on the ground! This afternoon we are heading up to Mountain Dell again to do some track skiing, so I'll enjoy the sun there.

I worked this morning on the 20x30 again, just trying to define the water better.



Some stormier clouds were added with rain coming down on the left side. The crit tonight at my place, and yes, most likely a broken wine glass by Robert; I'll find out what this piece could use this evening after the tongues have been loosened up with wine.

I also worked on a smaller 11x14 that was part of the collection the Mystic Gallery sent back.
















This painting basically lacked contrast. So I darkened down the water and added brighter highlights. In fact I did that with most of the objects in the piece, starting out with the background and moving forward to the boats on the left and right side. Giving it darker darks and lighter lights. Its amazing just that little rule will give your work more the illusion of a bright day. Last years the May Gallery sold a 36x48 version I did of this scene. The view is Stockholm, Sweden from the bridge that goes over to Djurgarden (one of the many islands in town)

People will often ask me which city I consider to be the most beautiful in Europe and being married to a Swede......"My wife has told me to say, Stockholm, Sweden!!!"

Now, between you and me.....I'm rather partial to Provence. There is a certain lifestyle there I really get into.


Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Last night we were treated to a hand full of free tickets to see the "Pink Floyd Experience". How is this possible, you might just well ask.....easy when one of the scout parents, Steve Boulay is part owner of an entertainment company in Salt Lake City. They are in charge of pulling in events like this and some times he comes across promotional tickets. So last week when he started handing them out at the scout meeting, most everybody yelled out, "Hell yes!"

We were about five adults and ten kids all going to this flash-back concert at the University of Utah. The group, made up of six guys ( No, not the original band members.....they would be close to 70 for some of them!) , but any ways they did a killer job of the old classic songs by the original Pink Floyd. It was a real flash back to the 70's as they played for two and a half hours. I would definitely recommend seeing the show, it was a lot of fun!


Okay, this always seems to happen. That painting of the stairs I told you about that sold at the May Gallery, well Ron called me back an hour later and told me a second person called about it and wanted to know if he could buy it. I've had this happen a few times before, a painting will sit on the gallery wall for half a year, but as soon as it sell, there is somebody else calling back to see if the work is still available!

Ron was wondering if I had something similar in the works. So now I am left with the thought, if I can get the same color theme going, maybe the client will go for this one? I looked at the piece from yesterday and did some changes to this one......what do you think?

I added some warmer oranges to the left side, broke up the front steps and busted up the walkway some more. When I was finished with it, I sent off the image to the gallery and got this as a reply "Richard, The client really liked the archway in the other piece!"..........Right, sometimes you can never win, the colors are similar, but maybe I need to build an arch someplace up the stairs in order for the client to find it interesting?

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I had to miss the model session last night, Karin had some night class to go to and it was my job to guard the fort. So it was chicken fajitas and the Jay Leno show!

Yesterday I sent off an email to the Mystic Gallery complaining about the overkill packing job, but as usual nobody responds there. It just goes ignored. So now I have ten older paintings to re-work, which for me is fun. Its amazing how much you can learn about painting in just the coarse of a year, when I see stuff from four years ago its like..."wow, the artist can be taught new tricks !!!"

I started off on this piece here today from about three years ago, I like it but it needs more contrast.
Also the line of boats had to go, so the one off to the left I moved over and changed direction, so now its jibbing to starboard (thats to the right for all you land folk) . The water was also lightened up, along with the background trees. I raised the height of the tree on the left shoreline and where ever possible tried to bring in contrast against the sky.

It really popped the tree line on top of the rock cliff behind the sailboats. The water will still need more work, but I need to give it some time to dry a bit, I went over it with some thick paint and its a little hard to get it like I want it. The rocks will need some more texture and form also, so at least I'll have something to do tomorrow!

Ron from the May Gallery in Scottsdale just called and told me that he sold this piece. Its still in my studio! Yes, I do love the power of JEPG files and emails.....maybe now I should put a cute large-eyed puppy dog in the piece and see what Ron would say.

I have to mail it off soon and get it down to him, so the client can see it in person. That always makes me happy when things sell before they leave the studio.......yeah its been a while with this economy!
Seems like every time the stock market does a hiccup, the art market suffers.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Feb. 1

Yesterday we finally made it up for a full day of skiing at Alta, and actually ended up with knee deep powder. We did the same scenario as last weekend, where Karin took the other two-wheel-drive family car to the base of the canyon, so they could leave after a half day's worth of skiing. We arrived up at the Albion parking lot just after they opened for the morning. Markus, our oldest went up earlier with his friends and naturally were some of the first on the lifts. They went off skiing by themselves for the day. It's a general rule for teenagers that one doesn't ski with the parents........"its just not cool!"

We took also Sean along, one of Victor's friends, so he had someone to ski with and of course they also wanted to take off on their own, so at least we agreed to meet for lunch. That left Karin, Lina and myself to try some powder on Vail ridge under the Sunnyside lift. Lina, being only nine wasn't so use to the idea of skiing in powder and voiced her discontent every time she disappeared face first under the snow. After several times digging her out, we got her to lean a little more forward, which made all the difference in the world for turning and keeping herself more in control. Enough so that she was willing to try it three more times down the same area.

We all met up for lunch at the mid mountain lodge and afterwards I skied the rest of the day with Victor and Sean. After the midday meal of burgers, Karin and Lina took the bus down to their waiting car at the bottom of the canyon. When the rest of us finally ended for the day, my legs were burning. It was a good feeling!


So today after moving the dog, I worked on finishing up the Stockholm Cafe piece. I made the guy in the middle smaller and lightened his tee shirt, some more work to the people at the right side and then I loaded up the paint brush to work on the cobble stones in the shade. Also some flowers were added to the potted plants to give it more color. Any comments or criticism would be appreciated ! The plants in the lower right were in shade, but I lightened up a portion of the leaves....not too sure if that was the best move yet?

This morning I opened the front door and saw eight large boxes from the Mystic Seaport Gallery in Connecticut, I guess the Fedex man thought it alright to just leave a collection of paintings on the front porch!

Several months ago I asked the gallery to clean out their storage and send some of the older pieces back to me. This gallery is notorious for not responding or giving me any feedback. Their artist roster is well over a hundred, so people like me just get lost or worse still just ignored. So for the past six months I've been sending the occasional emails wondering when they might get around to shipping a few back that they have had for several years and also to please send them the cheapest way possible.

The gallery is claiming a non-profit status and feels that the poor artist should pay for shipping his or her work both directions. The general rule is that the artist should take care of delivering the work to the gallery, but then the gallery should pick up the tab for the return of unsold work. So when I see eight boxes on the front porch with most containing one painting only, I begin to get a little pissed off, certainly paintings that don't even have a frame around them, shouldn't warrant a large padded crate for themselves. All of the old pieces they returned could have been done in three boxes, but nooooo...why would they care, the artist is suppose to pick up the exorbitant cost of eight boxes with crating charges.

I'll send of an email complaining about it all, but its like trying to tell a bureaucrat that their waisting too many tax dollars.



Richard Boyer