Thursday

Today was another quick sketch from Amsterdam. Down from our apartment last summer they had this cool café, where all the tables were spread out along the side of a bridge. The color of the umbrellas caught my eye, so I figured it would be worth a smaller painting first just to see if it could work on a larger scale. I’ll bring it to the crit tonight and see the consciences.

Seems like every afternoon there is a list of things to do before we leave for Sweden, buy this and that and taking care of all those small errands that need to be done. We had a pile of stuff that we dragged off yesterday to the “Deseret Industry”; one of those organizations that cleans up cloths and sells them for pennies on the dollar to those in need. The car was loaded up all the way.

I was contacting an old Swedish friend yesterday and saw this picture on his facebook. It’s soooo bizarre that I just had to share it, actually he did a good job setting it up ! Way to go Bjorn!!!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I sent my digital entry into the A.I.S. show (American Impressionist Society), so we will see what happens. Either I get accepted or I’ll receive the generic form letter of “rejection”. I decided to try the “USS Constitution” piece, so sometime towards the end of July they will decide which paintings get in and post the results.

This morning I worked a little on my “daughter feeding the horse” painting. The arm needed to be fixed, so I repainted a few spots on that and now it doesn’t look as static as it did before. Maybe I could try this in the OPA regional show. Why not go for the double rejection letters!!!

The studio was dark today as some large thunderhead clouds moved over our neighborhood. Soon the wind was blowing large rain droplets against the door and I went out on the porch to watch small tree limbs flying through the air. That’s when I also noticed the UPS package on the porch. A week ago I sent three newer works off to Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery and forgot that he was going to be returning older work.

It’s always a little depressing and fits in quite well with the dark overcast skies to be getting work returned to the artist. Work that you invested so much time into and have now come to the realization that nobody was interested in it. Several weeks of labor and love shot down the drain. It’s time to re-evaluate the paintings and see if I can add something to them. Sometimes this can be fun; it tells me just how much I have learnt since doing these pieces.

Richard Boyer

Monday, June 27

I finished off the USS Constitution painting today. I’ll call it the “duty roster”, with the guy reading off the morning work details. That must be one of the choicest boats to serve your navy time on. From what I understand it’s been in service for over 200 years.

This 12x16 is just another block-in for the Mockingbird Gallery. The scene is once again in the town of Gordes, Provence, one of my favorite areas to paint.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Here is a little project Kyle Strayer was working on. He has taken a few film classes up at the University and brought the camera and timer with on the last San Juan River trip we did. With the camera set up next to me taking an image every five seconds we were able to do a fast motion clip of a painting in progress. I took some more shots working on it later in the studio as well and gave it all to him so he could put together this small video clip

Sheryl Crow is playing tonight at Red Butte Gardens, Karin and I thought of just hanging out in the park outside the arena to have a picnic and at least hear the band. There is an area behind the stage up on a bluff where those poor souls without a ticket can at least hang out and listen. The concert was sold out when we tried to order tickets and we figured anything through the want ads would be out of our budget. That’s when Nick and Rose showed up with surprise tickets for us. “Way to go!!!” Nick said it was an early birthday present. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. The open-air arena is actually a large expanse of grass, where you can bring in your own picnic including wine. So with the Strayer’s and Rees’ there it will be a good time hanging out on the lawn listening to the band

Richard Boyer

I tried to up-load the video with Blog Spot but it doesn't seem to work, their program seems inept, so here is the link to You-Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEwHhNi3iPE

Thursday

Jim from the Mockingbird Gallery send me a message that he wanted four smaller Amsterdam pieces before I leave for Sweden, so that is just what I will be working on now in the next week or so.

I started this one today, it’s only a 14x11 but the nice thing about that size is that you can get it done in one shot. I have another one lined up for tomorrow that is unless the crit group blasts away on my Boat work about the USS Constitution. Then my day will be spent making the changes to bring it up to standards.

Karin and I have been arguing lately about what kind of lawn mower to buy. She thinks a push mower is environmentally friendlier, which of course it is, except for the poor slob who has to push it around through knee high grass. I’m for the gas powered ones because we generally never keep up with the yard work. When the grass becomes a jungle than it’s time to do something about it and trying to push some old fashion lawn cutter through that is just back breaking.

So I went off to the local Home Depot and was surprised to find the newest device for cutting lawns. A battery powered mower, so I compromised and went halfway. No manual labor device, just one that you can charge up in an hour and should do the job.

Problem solved.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Our car, which we lovingly called “Salad”, because of its green color, is now officially dead!

Lets all bow our heads in a moment of silence!

Apparently Markus while zipping along a dirt road hit a rock so hard it smashed the radiator and cracked the corner of the engine block; there was oil and water mixing together. The mechanic said it needed a new engine, or the junkyard. I chose the later, we have been plagued with bills from that car since day one. I have to send down the title and he has some guy, who comes through town every few months to pick up cars for the junkyard located in some other part of southern Utah.

I worked more on the figures today.

Richard Boyer

Monday, June 20

I worked on the back ground a little today and put more of the mast lines in. This will make it easier then to work on the figures, instead of trying to paint the material in behind them.

Looks like the Devin Gallery sold my OPA painting, that’s a first with me; I’ve never sold one of my paintings at an OPA show, so way to go!!!

And with every good news comes the bad. Markus, our son called me this afternoon to inform me that the car was smoking along the highway on some remote section between Green River and Moab, Utah. They were four wheeling out of some bike riding area and most likely hit a rock, causing oil to leak over the engine.

I immediately called AAA and signed up, unfortunately there is a two day waiting period, so they told me there was nothing they could do (Like Hell !!!) The boys were stranded a good two hours by the side of the road with no one stopping to offer help. Finally they got a hold of another friend down there and used his AAA membership card. The car is now being towed some thirty miles back to Moab, so we can find out just what kind of damage they did.

Some people say having kids is expensive. I think the correct answer would, just wait until they become teenagers!

Richard Boyer

Friday

Here is a series of pen & ink drawings I did for the May Gallery. They called me several months ago about a black and white publication some guy does with the artists in Scottsdale and that they were looking for sketches. So with that in mind I did these five from our last trip to Provence. I found them to be quite fun to work on, it’s a little different pace, especially when you can just sit in a reclining chair and doodle in the evening with a glass of wine.

The next step will be to frame them all. I use to be good at cutting beveled edges in mat board, but that was a long time ago. So we will see if that still is true!

We called the Swedes and they all made it back safely to the old country, except for the running to their gate in JFK. They had less than an hour to make their way to a different terminal and find the right gate. They warned us if the plane is too late into JFK airport, you will never make it. We have the same connection in three weeks.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Well the Swedes left this morning and are most likely arriving at JFK as I write this. Victor, our son is following back with them to Sweden, he’s going to be in a confirmation group for three weeks with the Lutheran church just south of Stockholm. When he finishes we will just be arriving in time for the ceremony. He was looking forward to it all, going over and being in the group without those pesky parents hanging around.

I got a late start painting, since we saw them off at the airport and worked on the USS Constitution some more. I’ll take it to the crit tonight for a little feedback on the composition. But before that Bryce was going to have a model session at his place and I need to go to that, it’s been a while since I’ve painted at a figure session.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Still have another morning to think about this one, it’s close but not yet there. This is where the artist sits back and just stares at the painting for an hour or so thinking. I remember some modern artists back at school doing this as they worked on some God awful chaos of jumbled paint strokes. I felt like taking their brush and adding my feelings!

I inquired today about becoming an Oil Painter of America signature member. At the show they did a misprint on my name tag that said I was in the signature membership club, the reality was that I have never applied for it, never really knew what the requirements were. So today I sent an email to Ken Cadwallader, who I met at the OPA show; he forwarded it to Kathryn Beligratis who is another one on the board and they told me to apply. The form was sent with the instructions to do it all in sextuplet. It sounds worse than the US government, but I shall give it a try and throw my fate to the wind. They decide some time in November.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I worked more on the Smith Rock painting today; yesterday I wasted all my time driving Lina and her friend to a week long Girl Scout camp in Provo Canyon. The drive was only an hour each way, but the two hour check-in was a joke. The camp organizers were anything but organized at Trefoil Ranch. Everybody was forced to wait in long line after line, something they could have very easily combined together to make the whole process run quicker and smoother. All of the paper work we filled out earlier in the week they misplaced and couldn’t find, medical forms that they needed to fax in were directed to a non existing fax number. It was like dealing with a third world country!

Sorry for sounding stressed out, but I get that way when my day of painting is wrecked by incompetence. So today it was more like normal and I managed to get something done, maybe on Wednesday I’ll be able to finish it off.

Richard Boyer

Monday, June 13

I’m back from the Oil Painters of America show and I have to say it was a fun time up in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. I flew into Spokane, Washington at one in the afternoon on Friday and was given the key to my rental car. They pointed me to the slot it was parked in, there I threw my duffel bag in the back seat and climbed in to find out that the key didn’t fit. I grabbed my bag and walked back to the counter to find out what the story was. A concerned lot attendant walked around pressing the auto key lock until she heard the audible beep coming from a white Toyota Camry in some other area. They had mixed up the cars in the wrong places, problem solved and I was out of there.

Dave Strayer, who went to school in Spokane, told me to check out the Spokane River which flows through the middle of town. With the high snow melt the river was at record levels. I crossed several pedestrian bridges they had over the falls and stared down into the abyss of white water. The turbulence looked like it would suck an eighteen foot raft down under water and keep it there for weeks. It was a sight to see the power of the river flowing at that level.

A short drive later I was pulling into the hotel parking lot. The opening at the Devin Gallery started at 5:00. I kept wondering if there was going to be any kind of food there, since they talked about dessert and coffee at the nearby Coeur D’Alene Resort after the prize announcements. We were first to hang around the gallery until eight in the evening and then walk over to the resort to find out who won.

For me it was fun to meet all these new artists. Bryce Liston has been going to these events for some time now and knew a lot of the people. For me it was fun to match up a face with a name.

We all walked over and listened with nervous anticipation as the names of award winners were read off. The first award was for $20,000. And I knew I was never going to win that one, the artist had to reside in the Midwest. Then the awards and winners were slowly announced. The list went on as they read the twenty or so awards valued any where from $500 to $1200, awards from frames to artist’s supplies and everything in between. Then I heard my name and saw my painting flash up on the screen.

I had won the Animals Award of Excellence for $1000. Finally after countless times of entering the show I won something. Had this to do with me being there for the first time, I’ll never know, but it made it all worth while. It validated my existence as an artist!!!

I walked up and congratulated Dan Beck, the $25,000 Gold Medal winner. Maybe nest year I thought.

We walked across to a restaurant and ate a late night dinner, after that it was a local sports bar drinking with other award winners until two in the morning. I am going to have start going to more of these events!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Didn’t get much done today, it’s been a fairly busy morning. Markus graduates tonight so there is a lot of preparation for that event, and our duplex has a burnt out swamp cooler motor. Usually that would be fairly easy to fix, but not when it’s at the top of a very steep pitched roof. There is this climbing move I need to do where I hold on to the edge of a shingle and with the right foot planted on the roof swing into a steep 45 degree valley, where I can get opposing pressure as I shimmy my way up to the crest. And then last but not least I leave for Coeur D’Alene, Idaho tomorrow for the Oil Painters of America show.

After looking at all the work on their web site, I’ll be lucky if I win the gift certificate at Wal-Mart !!! Still it will be fun to fly up and meet some of the artists.

Marianne and her kids, along with Markus, Victor and Lina all decided they wanted to try sledding today. So they loaded the toboggan and sleds in the cars and drove up to Brighton at 9000 feet. There was plenty of snow and with a fully loaded toboggan down a steep ski run the potential for disaster was most likely also high. On smooth snow they could attain speeds faster than sound.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I was back on to the Smith Rock painting again today. There is actually a path that takes you up the left side of the Monkey Face, that’s the phallic looking spire right of center. The path zigzags its way up the scree field to the top and there you can chat with the climbers who ascend up the face of the rock. And by the way the view is also spectacular.

Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery shot me an email that he sold a large 30x40 boat painting I did of the Seattle Yacht club, so way to go Jim!

Tonight it’s bowling with the Swedes at the University!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I like to work on several paintings at a time; this keeps the eye fresher and the painting more exciting to work on. So I put yesterdays work aside and started this smaller 20x30. It’s the reading of the duty roster on the USS Constitution in Boston.

We were there several years ago and had a great time visiting all the historic sights. What I found the most interesting were the actors who dress up in period costume, walking around the old town giving free history lessons, history lessons that one normally wouldn’t learn in a class room. An example being with “Samuel Adams” beer, he started the company in Boston, but that’s not a picture of him on the bottle. Some marketing friends of his told him that he had the face that would turn away prospective buyers; so he put his friend Paul Revere’s portrait on the bottle.

So next time you drink a Sam Adams, keep in mind it not him adorning the bottle.

This painting will take a while with all the rigging and detail of the boat, so I’ll try and take a few more photos of the progress.

Richard Boyer

Monday, June 6

I started my other 24x36 piece for the Mockingbird Gallery. It will be an evening shot of Smith Rock outside of Bend, Oregon. It’s a popular spot for climbers and hikers, everybody in the area knows of the place. I’ll paint the foreground in shadow with the background rock cliffs bathed in light, reflecting down into the water. Maybe I should put a Viking boat in the water there?

I was planning on going to the figure painting session tonight at Rick, but was trumped by Sweden’s National Day, their idea of July 4^th. Sweden never really gained independence from another country; they were more or less always the aggressor though time. The Vikings started that all off and since then they have always been a power house of independence. That independence may have gone overboard when they decided to conquer every country around the Baltic Sea some four hundred years ago. That being said with all their neighboring countries celebrating an independence day (in some cases from them), The Swedes decided that June 6 was as good as any day to declare a date of celebration. A day designated to hang the flag proudly outside the front door.

Elsie bought pork chops and is making a cake for a celebratory dinner tonight; my plans to paint a naked female with the artists were dashed against the rocks. I’ll hang the flag outside and stay at home with honor to uphold the Swedes National Holiday.

I’ll see if this involves heavy drinking or not!?

I am prepared

Richard Boyer

Saturday

Last night was the bachelor lifestyle of pizza and wine, sitting in front of the TV. I could see were that might drive you nuts after a few years of the same routine. Actually just before six in the evening I got a frantic call from Nick asking me to help drive a neighbors truck loaded with easels to the public library downtown. It was the annual convention for mind readers and they wanted an artist to display alongside their table setups of mind and card readers. Several weeks ago Nick reluctantly agreed and regretting it all one he found out the amount of work it entailed hauling his framed paintings and easels down there.

Since I was driving one of the trucks, I was automatically volunteered into helping him set up. We had to unload everything in the underground parking and haul in up by elevator. I could tell the crowd wasn’t the buying type, as they lined up to have their fortunes told by a card reader deep in meditation. I couldn’t help but to laugh and was hoping my cynicism wasn’t too apparent. Forty minutes later I was out of there at home watching “Gorky Park” on television.

I finished off this piece from our last San Juan River trip. Kyle Strayer is working on a time-lapse clip of me painting this 12x16. He set up his camera next to me to take a picture every five seconds as I worked over a two hour period. Once it’s done I’ll put it on YouTube.

Richard Boyer

Me in Twenty years

I have this strange feeling that I will be like this in twenty years!

Friday

The wine brought out the ruthlessness at the crit session. I stumbled home in the cold night air, broken and destitute around 12:30. The cat was the only animal to greet me at the front door; it just wanted to be let out. Well, by now I’m use to it all and have developed thick skin as they say. I took my notes and will work on the changes over the weekend. Most everyone left for a few days in Moab, so it’s just Markus and me at home. It’ll give me more time to paint and work on the house.

I worked some more on this piece and finished it off. The changes are small and almost imperceptible, kind of like those magazine puzzles where you have two similar pictures, except for five small things you need to find that are different.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I worked more on the Bend, Oregon piece today and didn’t get done until 5:30. It’s been a long day standing up to paint, but I wanted to get it more or less finished off for the crit session. And I know the first thing they will all nag about “the water is this funny blue color, why did you do that?”….well it is in reality. This is why the area is famous, because of its iridescent blue/green color. What can I say, maybe it’s minerals in the water or the fact that it flows over ancient lava beds.

With the house full of the relatives, we decided it best to have tonight’s session up at Nick’s place. Still Elsie ( Karin’s mother ) and Marianne ( Karin’s younger sister ) want to come up to meet the members, many of whom they have met on previous trips over here . I just tried to explain that the session usually gets a late start. Artists don’t belong to the normal working class schedule of early to bed, early to rise. In fact one of our members Sid stays up all night until the sun rises and then sleeps in until five in the evening. That kind of sleep cycle would drive my to depression

Any ways the jet lag seems to be abating, so a late night glass of wine or two might be just the ticket to kick it totally out of their systems. Usually the first hour is just wine tasting and socializing, it takes some of the hard core critters like me or Rick Graham to steer the group on to the real reason we are there.

Marianne picked up some Rose, so maybe now would be a good time to open the bottle!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

We have our tickets for Sweden and of course, will be looking forward to that; but before I can go there are quite a few works that need to be done for some of my galleries. One is being Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery. European subject matter doesn’t do too well in Bend, Oregon; it’s more of a younger crowd that hasn’t traveled as much is my guess. In Scottsdale, the retirement capital of the world, it seems everybody has been over to Europe at some time or another.

That being said the best subject matter for him tends to be local and that is what I started today. It will be a 24x36 of Wizard Falls, just outside of Sisters, Oregon. The water there has this deep rich turquoise color, as it flows over an old lava bed. Off to the left is a dirt path along the side, where the light was dappling down through the trees.

Richard Boyer