Friday

The lazy days of summer have set in, three sunny days in a row. Yes miracles do exist. So as a result of the weather I haven’t been out painting. Karin and I just biked around town looking in shops and did lunch by the town pier. I felt like one of those sea tortoises sunning itself all afternoon on the rock.

Thursday I went out with a 14x18 in hand and just started driving around looking for something to paint. I should have realized this never works with me. It’s always best to have some subject matter or scene picked out in advance; or else you end up doing what I did yesterday. I had this notion to paint the town church, so there I drove and found the trees all surrounding it and offering no real view to paint from. Then I headed up the road to another old stone bridge to find a good view for a piece, but the best vantage point nearby was on the edge of a bridge on a busy highway – a good place to become the next victim in an accident. I took pictures instead and drove farther north to Forsmark.

Forsmark is an old iron-producing factory from the 1700’s. Sweden had the reputation of producing some of the world’s finest quality weapons at that time. And since many spots in the world were at war, Forsmark iron was earning money faster that they could crank it out. The area became quite wealthy.

It was getting late by then and I still couldn’t find a good angle for something; either bushes or trees were in the way, or the angle just wasn’t right. I went home with nothing but photos and a general feeling that the day was a waist. I wasn’t inspired and thank God I didn’t start a painting. I have a box at home filled with un-inspired work!!!

Richard Boyer