Tuesday

We had a good model last night at Rick’s. What I mean by good is that she was quite cute looking and able to hold the pose very still, which may sound easy to most, but when you try it it’s actually very hard to do. She was able to just fall right back into the same position after each break; which for me was great since I was working on a portrait shot. And every artist knows if you want to capture a likeness the model absolutely, positively has to be still!

Today I jumped back on the winter snow scene, working on the architecture of the house and background trees and yes, I am putting some lights in the window. Yup, following in Thomas Kinkade’s footsteps….if I do that I might be sick.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Jan 30

I started another 24x30 block-in just so I can work on several at a time and keep everything a little fresher with each piece. This scene is Sofia, one of our relatives going out in their boat on a lake in Sweden. It should be a fun one with all the reflections in the water contrasting against the green lily pads.

We spent the weekend up at the cabin, where a foot and a half of new snow had fallen; and also where the small narrow unimproved private road became covered in slick frozen packed snow. Our car was sliding backwards as we tried to drive up the steep incline. After three attempts we decided a little speed would be the answer. So I backed up some distance and tried to get the spinning tires up to second gear on the icy road. The momentum carried the car high enough up the incline so the front tires were able to grip on a patch of exposed asphalt. We continued farther up to within 50 feet of the cabin there the road had not been plowed; a foot of fresh snow blocked our way. We spent about an hour Friday night digging out the entrance so we could pull the car in to unload all our gear. The hillside was a winter wonderland with thick snow clinging to every branch; it was Christmas all over again.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I started another winter scene from back East; Joseph from the May Gallery had a client about a month ago that was interested in a snow painting for their home. So I agreed to see what I could do about it, being an artist, and also able to paint winter snow scenes with the brush. I figured there was a niche I could fill here!!!

So I found this gorgeous Victorian House from the area where my parents live and decided it would make a good subject matter, especially if I can get some warm lights glowing from the windows - “Thomas Kinkade, watch out!”

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I love attacking older works that I have in the studio. These two I changed around quite a bit and had some fun adding a little of this and that. They were at a gallery for a while with no luck, so like most artists you look at it with a fresh eye and see just what it is that the piece could use.

Here is the original

And then with the added changes!

Here is the next original

And with a few changes added also.

Richard

Tuesday

We got another small snow front moving through last night adding to the total!

This is today’s project; it’s an older piece that I have been re-working. Mainly changing out a few figures for new ones and re-arranging the tables here and there. All of this would naturally be soooooo much easier with Photoshop!!! But alas, I only have the brush, so it may take a few days to get it all changed around the way I want it. I’ll put it off to the side now to look at it in a few days with a fresh eye.

And as Debbie suggested I got rid of the red flag above the older man walking up the stairs, a very quick fix!

Richard Boyer

Monday, Jan 23

Yesterday was one of those picture perfect skiing days. After Saturdays storm the mountains received over two feet of fluffy white snow and everybody was up to enjoy it on a sunny Sunday. The only problem being the traffic; Little Cottonwood was closed for much of the day due to an avalanche that closed off the road. They finally dug the snow out of the way by two in the afternoon. When that happens the skiers all default to the other neighboring canyon, the neighboring canyon where we have passes to. The cars were parked for miles down the road and some of the lift lines were just as long; but we finally found a spot and spent the day up there skiing powder and enjoying the sun.

Today I worked a little more on this piece adding an older man walking up the stairs.

Friday

So after looking at it for a few days I figured it needed a figure. I decided to put Sofia in it from a photo shoot this past summer. It does seem to help and adds some interest to the subject. So once again I’ll put it aside in the studio and see if any new ideas come to mind after a few days

You are welcome to throw rocks at me if I end up put a cute kitty cat in there with big eyes!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well I changed a few things around in the painting, mainly the orange stone wall in the background. After finishing off a few other areas I noticed it needed to be toned down in intensity. It’s still not 100% finished, so I’ll let it sit in the studio for a while and see what it needs in a few days.

It would appear that winter has finally arrived here in Salt Lake City; for the next week it’s forecasted as rain and snow. “White snow” that stuff we so desperately need at all the ski resorts. It might also mean that Mountain Dell could open up for some track skiing. Yesterday I was driving all over the place in Park City to drop the kids off at different locations for training; there at least the snow is just barely covering the grass. Mountain Dell is so much closer to those of us living in the valley and at least there they can fit the entire TUNA organization in one place.

Richard

Monday, Jan 16

I started another 40x30 piece here for the May Gallery. A few summers ago when we were in Provence, in the town of Bonnieux I passed this small alley on the way up to the top of the village. The noon-day sun was high over head and the light was just illuminating the stone walkway in front of the wall. There are some flowers in the pots to the right that will really add some color.

This was blocked in on Saturday

And then today’s work.

Richard Boyer

Friday

The crit session went well last night. Mysteriously with one of the crit members absent, no wine glasses were broken. My fingers were still thawing out from our late afternoon skate ski workout in Millcreek Canyon. The Utah Nordic Alliance was meeting there for their 4:30 Thursday training session and the temperature gauge in the car was reading 16 degrees. Sunlight basically never reaches this canyon in winter time; so our ski up the icy snow was cold on the fingers. Halfway up they were feeling like ice blocks.

From the notes I worked on two older pieces today. This first one just needed a bit more light on the heads and a small flower pot in the girl’s hand. I also submitted it to the Raymar on-line art competition, so we shall see how it does?

This next piece is an Amsterdam work I did several years back. Maybe back when I was quite naïve, as the song goes! But here I added a lot more contrast in the water to see if that would save it. The blue was much too dark before, so now that it is lighter it also has a better sense of sunlight on the water.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well Jim sold a nice piece for me today. During our opening night the gallery became very crowded; so crowded that it usually puts off any potential buyers having to deal with bodies milling around in front of the work. You just can not get a good view of the painting. But sometime during that evening I had a conversation with a nice woman about my art work. She came back today after thinking about one of my pieces and bought it. She felt it would make a nice addition to her entry way at home.

I like to hear things like that!!!

In this piece I added a few canoeists this morning to give it a little more life. I had the painting in Southam Gallery and I guess they were not getting the response they wanted. So when that happens it doesn’t hurt to add something more.

Richard

Tuesday

Here are a few pictures from the top of Mt Bachelor with Jim’s cell phone camera.

Today I added the rigging to the masts and touched up a few more parts on the boats. I’ll bring it to the crit session on Thursday to get some more feedback on what it might need. But I do think it’s close to done, maybe just a few small things here and there.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Jan 9

I’m back; Rick Graham and I had a fun time in Bend, Oregon. We were surprised at the amount of people at the show, it coincided with their Art Walk and the population came out in droves.

The next day Jim Peterson and I did a day of skiing up at icy Mt Bachelor. The evening of the show it started to snow in the town and of course the rumors were flying that feet were being dumped at the resort. So we decided to see how true it was the next morning.

After paying my exorbitant lift ticket we rode up to the top and found about two inches on top of month old ice with a nice strong wind howling in your face. It did make for some challenging skiing and was fun to go exploring the volcanic peak with Jim and test out the Cascade snow. Some people describe it like skiing in wet concrete. From the top the views were spectacular looking down on Sparks Lake and the Three Sisters.

It was also time to get back to work again; so here is today’s result on the boat painting.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Tomorrow we are off for the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon; weather looks good for driving. Just a little too good, this lack of snow is getting on everyone’s nerves. Skiing on grass isn’t much fun!

The drive if all goes right will take about ten hours, ten hours of driving along some of the most isolated roads in the West, especially through Eastern Oregon.

I had a few errands to do today so not much was done on the boat painting, just a little on the middle boat. I’ll have time to attack it again when I get back into town on Monday.

Richard

Tuesday

Just worked some more on the painting; focusing in on a few of the boats off to the right side. With all the rigging I know it won’t be done before I leave for Bend, Oregon: as they say just too much information to paint. So its best to take my time and do it right; after all I still have all the reflections in the water to work on and that could take a while.

Richard Boyer

Monday, January 2, 2012

The New Year is here; time to make amends and some of those classic resolutions that will last two weeks. We had some friends over for a nice dinner in the evening and drank good wine until the wee hours of the morning; except for that firework interruption at midnight. It was actually a very relaxing time and fun to catch up with some old friends. Unfortunately the next morning was just a little cloudy though and I don’t mean the weather.

Sunday was one of those lying around days. Plenty of coffee and a healthy brunch of eggs, potatoes and what ever kind of meat we could find in the refrigerator helped. Finally around three in the afternoon I though enough was enough and I started a 24x36 boat painting for Southam Gallery.

It started first as a block-in to get the composition done, the perfect project when you are tired from the night before.

And then today I progressed on to the background. Since the masts and rigging will be covering over that part it made sense to paint it first.

I’ll see if I can get this done before I drive to Bend, Oregon. This Thursday Rick Graham and I will be heading out there for our two man show at the Mockingbird Gallery. Last week I sent off about eight pieces, so hopefully they should be arriving there today or tomorrow. We’ll stay a few days and come back on Sunday. Jim, the owner was talking about skiing at Mt Bachelor, but with no snow in the West that doesn’t sound too promising. The idea of skiing on man made snow down the beginner runs could be fairly lame.

Richard Boyer