Thursday

This is another painting that I decided to resurrect. Something I did a few years ago, that really had some problems so I just put it off in the corner and forgot about it. Well I changed a few major things around and will bring it to the crit session tonight for a little feedback. It’s my daughter carrying a milk jug up some steep stairs at the old house in Hälsingland. I know Anders Zorn would have loved to paint here!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

So after having this painting rejected from the Oil Painters of America show I decided to re-paint it with more contrast.  That meant changing a few things around and re-doing the figure to the left. She looked a little on the fuzzy side, so I thought maybe sharpening up the features in the face and punching up the darks would help.  Now it looks a little better. 

Richard

Friday

After the crit session last night I added an old bike in front of the back wall to give it some interest.  I also added some more flowers like most of the alleyways seem to have in Provence.  They seem to take their potted plants very seriously.

On one of my trips to Provence I met a man in a small village, whose job was to go around and make sure all the potted flowers had enough water. The sole employee at the department of beautification for the town, he also maintained the central fountain in the square and would of course write you up if you failed to maintain your flower pots in front of your apartment.  It must have been a hard job !!

Richard Boyer 

Thursday

We made our reservations for Sweden, one of those nightmares with the prices and trying to do it on-line to get the best rates. The problem is when you play tag team with one adult going earlier with the kids and the second adult picking up the tail end with the kids, the on-line booking freaks. It sees two kids flying home with a different adult and just gives you constant error signals.  So I had to call up “Expedia”, talk to one of their lovely representatives in India, make our complicated reservation, only to have the line go dead and loose all the information. One hour down the drain, I was pissed to say the least.

So I called them up again and told them their telephone system was incompetent, another gentleman from India told me,  “It will not appen again mister Boyer, you will please give me your email address so I can contact you if we are cut off again!”

After another hour, thinking the telephone would go dead at any moment from their end, we had the reservations secured.  And are now in the poor house.  Bill Gates didn’t come through in our time of need!

Well today I worked on some figures from an older painting, a painting that was rejected from the recent Oil Painters of America show.  So with my tail between my legs I decided that maybe, just maybe it needed more contrast and richer color.  So I am going to re-paint the entire thing and see what happens.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

My wife’s brother took off for Sweden this morning, the long eighteen hour travel time, only to arrive in the morning with a full day ahead of you.  That’s the part of the trip I hate.  He had a good time seeing some of the sights up in Yellowstone that he has never seen before and bought enough cloths on sale to fill up an extra suitcase. Whenever the factory outlet shops in Park City have a sale you can end up buying far too much.

This is how it looked before

I worked on this piece today and as you can see did some major changes to it. The back wall bothered me so much that I had to get rid of that funny architectural thing on top and put in a normal wall with window.  I then added more climbing roses to the wall and a few more flower pots in the lower right. Now it feels more inviting with a lead in for the eye to wander up the steps.  I still have a little to do with the background at the top of the stairs. 

Richard Boyer

Monday, May 21

Man verses Bison is never a good mix, especially when they out weigh you by 2000 pounds. By the sight of some of the dented vehicles, not even a car is a good match against them. 

April and May is the time of the young calves and that usually means an over protective mother, still some people like to challenge it and end up with their organs re-arranged.

With this in mind I took my shots with some distance and the protection of the car. This one made sure of it!

The bison generally like to use the road for quick travel from one pasture to the other, or in this case to get across the river. The cars they seem to be indifferent to, this is why if they get to close in a group you might be looking at several thousand in body work to the door panels.

This one I had some wet soft ground between so I was able to get down low with the telephoto and shoot some good close-ups.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

My wife’s brother arrived on Tuesday from Sweden, staying a week to help celebrate her birthday.  He missed the dinner party last weekend, but we planned for another event up to West Yellowstone this weekend. He has never been up north to the geysers and “Old Faithful”. This time of season the Bison are walking right by the road with their new born calves and it can really make for some nice photos.

 So back to business, the Howard/Mandville Gallery wanted a vertical Provincial piece; as they put it something quiet, no people, no busy cafés, just quiet!

With that in mind I started this alleyway view with the morning light coming around the corner.  This is just the block-in

Then I defined more the stone structure and the light on the buildings. I’ll bring up the tree which has flowers in next week when we get back.

Richard

Tuesday

-+

So the reality is that yesterday was her real birthday and you might be asking, “Well what prey tell did you get her?”

I did a 24x36 inch portrait of the children out in the garden having tea. The two boys didn’t like that idea, but it fits in with my daughter.  I must admit I was inspired by John Singer Sargent’s piece “The Daughters of Edward Boit” He did their painting in the interior of the living room, with some of the girls lost in the shadows; just a beautiful piece!

Now I figured my wife would not want our kids lost in the shadows of our living room, so I opted for outside light and besides it’s in what my wife calls “The Italian Garden”, something she designed and built herself. 

So I started about a month ago with a general block-in. I had other paintings to work on as well, so this piece was brought up a little bit at a time, lest she get suspicious of my secret activities.  After all I couldn’t just say I was working on nothing for the past week; to pull it off I need to show that production was not slowing down, hence the smaller boat paintings!!!

I then worked on the faces trying to capture the likenesses, not an easy thing to do with several faces being painted over and over again.

And then worked on more of the details of the clothing and background.

Then it dawned on me. To be honest it was after one of the crit sessions, when they said that the middle figure, our oldest child was too small. He looked like a dwarf.  I asked if it would help to just lower the legs?  They responded with a stern, “ No, just paint the @%#% over again, but larger, don’t be lazy!!!”

So like any artist you cringe and white out the figure, you spent some much time on, only to re-paint it all over again correctly.  Six hours of hard labor down the drain….

Now it looks a lot better and it also got the stamp of approval from my wife, meaning I got the likeness of the kids down. I figured she would be the hardest critic on that subject.  “Every mother knows her own children inside and out”

Richard Boyer

Monday, May 14

There are the usual Birthday parties and then there are those parties to celebrate the turning of a decade in age. Some are more milestone than others of course and such was the case with Karin over the weekend.  We were told by several friends to vacate the house for the day and not to come back until six in the evening; and with mild concern not to ask any questions.  We obliged, taking extra cloths with us to deal with the heat of the day and a dance performance at Kingsbury Hall that afternoon featuring our daughter.

At six in evening we returned to our house transformed into an Italian restaurant; a large fully set formal table in the living room with seven course menu on each plate. Out on the back porch a setup of small bistro tables, adorned with provincial table cloths and sunflowers. A spread of Antipasto and champagne waiting off to the side; at least they didn’t re-paint the walls.

The women in charge introduced the hired hands!!!

We were told after a few bottles of Fresco Prosecco had been finished off that it was time to come into the main dinning hall. The crew brought in from another room the first dish of pasta and Chianti. From then on the wine and food seemed to flow for several hours. Speeches were recited with embarrassment in mind for Karin. This is usually when a parent wishes they had ear plugs for the kids, “You did what when you were a teenager!?”

Yes, things happened at the party where is wouldn't be appropriate to repeat, embarrassing events all witnessed and brought up in full detail be the employed children the next day.  The party was good chatting with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

At four in the morning the last guests left and we crawled into bed. Sunday was a day of rest in more than one way.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

The heat has arrived in Salt Lake, unfortunately later on in the week it’s suppose to get up to the 80’s.  I prefer the cooler temps of spring. "Long live the spring!"

I did another smaller boat painting today.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

With the coming of spring there seems like a lot of garden work on the list, maybe this might just coincide with my wife having a birthday party and the fact that the guests will be milling around the backyard.  So clean-up it is in the backyard.  After all there can be nothing more exciting that getting down on all fours to pull up dandelion weeds.

I worked some more on these two smaller boat paintings. From the last crit session I got some ideas of things to improve.   Mainly the water in both of them needed a little more work.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

It’s been grey skies today, so the picture quality isn’t the greatest in the studio, just a little on the dark side.  But any way here is number two of the small 9x12 boat studies. Once again just an hour and a half session on it to keep it fresh.

We have the crit session tonight so I’ll bring both of these to see what the group feels

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I worked on one of the smaller boat paintings today, trying to only spend an hour and a half on it so I could keep it more like a looser sketch.

Richard

Tuesday

I got an email from Southam Gallery; they put in a request for some “Stocking Stuffer” sized paintings.  Generally I don’t like doing such small work because you can spend the same amount of time and do a 12x16 which would sell for more.  But if I can keep these small 9x12’s loose like a quick study they might be fun and who knows maybe they just might sell as stocking stuffers? Here are two block-ins I did this morning.

I’ll try to do a half dozen of them!

My wife has a big birthday coming up, so I haven’t been diligent about writing. Instead I have been racking my brains on what to get her.  Maybe a DeWalt 12” Double Bevel Sliding Miter Saw would be the perfect present !!!  Between you and me I am working on something secret, but the last thing I would want to do is tell the internet where it would leak back to her!

Richard Boyer