Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tuesday


Rick Graham and Robert Duncan arrived in one piece, both quite tired from the long flight over the pond.  Today we spent our day walking around Stockholm, showing them the sights of the city.


 Here we are checking out the AF Chapman in the harbor, it use to be a youth hostel, but now is a café offering the perfect view of the old city across the water. 


We decided to also stop by the National Museum where I picked up a few of my favorite paintings by Zorn. 


As well as this disturbing little study by Gericault after the guillotine. Yeah right!!!


Here is a shot of Rick Graham and Robert Duncan checking out Stockholm’s smallest street in the Gamla Stan.  We were trying to avoid the rain.  Tomorrow it should be better weather, so painting might be in order.

Richard Boyer

Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday, July 30


My location is now in Sweden, in fact I’ve been here for the past week unable to Internet access since we were climbing Sweden’s tallest mountain. 

A hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle is Kebnekaise, reaching up to a lofty height of 2104 meters, which translates into around 6500 feet.  Now being from Utah where the mountains reach up to 13,000, that elevation is nothing to really consider.  The town hall on Main Street in Park City is probably at that height; so any mention of that elevation to the folks back home and they would be saying “Well don’t strain yourself too hard”, in a sarcastic tone. 


Now what one soon realizes is the remote location, the massive elevation gain and the fact that it is located in the cold arctic; make it a challenging mountain to climb.  And for most Swedes it is considered a Mecca of sorts to get up the peak once in their life. 

Since my wife is Swedish it was on the list of things to do. Last Tuesday we took the over night train up to Kiruna in the north, then a bus to a small outpost called Nikkaluokta.  There you put your over weight backpack on and start walking along a rocky and often muddy path for five kilometers to a boat dock.  The Saami, or indigenous people from the area have a very expensive ferry service that will shuttle you six more kilometers along the lake, from there you have to walk another eight kilometers to the Base lodge.  Not far from the lodge we found a camping site in the rain and set up.  The biggest problem up there is the extreme weather. It snows in July!


The next day it was overcast and we meet a few Swedes that tried for the top but were turned back because of the thick cloud cover, they just could not see a thing and in an area where hundred meter cliffs are on both side of you it was the smartest choice to head back.


We tried for Friday and for some odd reason the clouds were less that day. Others told us that the start time had to be around six or seven in the morning or else with the twelve hours required to do the trek you would not make it.  We started around seven thirty; the entire family on the endless trail expedition; the walking just never seemed to stop.  Up and up we wend in a long preside of people, feeling like the journey to Mecca. The elevation gain was over six thousand feet, including a nine hundred foot descent down the ridge only to do it again on the summit itself.


At two thirty in the afternoon we finally made it to the top; the last hundred meters were up in the clouds and you couldn’t see a thing.  It was a winter wonderland with everything covered in ice and snow.  The view was actually quite nice below that elevation, there you had the mountains to look at all the way into Norway, but above that point it was all in a fog.  Your only guide was the occasional rock or person in the distance.  Finally we made it to the knife-edge top with steep inclines off to either side, a place not to do the wrong step off the side.  The entire family had made the epic journey to Kebnekaise summit.  The trip down was mixed with snow glissades and knee crushing rock descents.  Eleven hours later we were back at the lodge ordering a rain deer burgers.

We flew out the next day for Stockholm. It was a trip well worth it, an adventure out of the norm and I feel glad to have done it.

This evening I met Robert Duncan and Rick Graham at the train Station in Stockholm. For the next couple of weeks we will be visiting museums and painting. Should be fun!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Wednesday


One more day left to get everything done. We changed the crit for tonight from Thursday.  The last thing I wanted to do was stay up until midnight the night before we fly out of here.  This way I’ll have tomorrow to work on any changes that need to be done, before I ship them off. 


I worked on two today for the Mockingbird Gallery; this first one, a 12x16 is of the Metolius River up by Camp Sherman near Bend, Oregon; a favorite by the locals for fly fishing.


And speaking of fly-fishing I move on to the second one here, which was done a few weeks back up at the Midway paint out. It’s a view along the Provo River with Mount Timpanogos in the background.  Here I added some of the fly fishermen, since they never kept still in reality when we were painting there. I figure it adds a little excitement to an otherwise mundane river scene and it is a popular spot for fishing: although I never saw anyone catching anything!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Tuesday


I feel honored today, an email came in from the director of the Coos Art Museum’s in Coos Bay, Oregon that I received an award from the 19th Annual Maritime Art Exhibition.  The show was last weekend, but I was unable to make there. It is a long drive for just the weekend, but I do remember doing it once. They put on an excellent dinner and it was good to meet all the artists. Dutch Mostert who I painted with the last time I was there, also one an award.




This was my entry “Duty Roster on the USS Constitution” which won the “Port of Coos Bay Award”  Now the prize isn’t enough to buy a new car, but to pay for a nice dinner, no problem.  So I do feel good that I actually won something, validating my existence as an artist.

Richard Boyer

Monday, July 16, 2012

Monday, July 16






I’m still pushing along trying to get as many done as possible before we leave. So here is today’s effort for the Mockingbird Gallery.  Smith rock is the name of the park, a popular climbing area for Oregon. There is a trail the goes up to the left of that rock cliff in the sunlight. Right next to that little round boulder at the pass. From there it goes off to the right behind the cliffs a mile or so then switchbacks up the side of a long scree field to the very top of all the sandstone cliffs and then loops around in a full circle.  It’s a fun hike and gets you up close to the rock cliffs and climbing routes, a few of which are 5.14’s.



Richard Boyer

Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday


We had the crit session last night, a rather light session since a few members are off on vacation.  These sessions seem to really thin out in the summer.  I’ll be gone at the end of next also, so that might be the final nail in the coffin. 


I finished off the 24x36 boat painting of Stockholm harbor for the Southam Gallery, now it just has to dry a bit before putting it in the frame.  In about two weeks I’ll be back over there at the exact spot. It is after all one of my favorite areas to paint in.  I just hope the weather over there will improve; grey dark clouds make for depressing paintings.




I also rearranged a few things in this 12x16 beach painting; mainly adding a few extra figures and some more sand underneath the red umbrella.  Now for me at least it looks more inviting.

There is going to be the last push over the weekend and next week to get a few more done before I leave.  Jim at the Mockingbird has put in a request for a couple of 12x16’s of the area around Bend, Oregon. The pressure is on now, I’ll just have to see how many I can get done.


Richard Boyer

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Thursday





I did a small 14x11 study today of Brugge, Belgium.  Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery has a client interested in collecting a few vertical pieces of mine.  So with that in mind I did this evening view along the main canal.  The boats are retired in for the evening as the last light blasts against the hotel façade.  The town is famous for all their flowers they plant in the summer; adding a lot of color to everything.  They can change an otherwise boring dock where all the tourists line up along to board the sightseeing boats: into a rather nice pleasing scene worthy of a painting.


Richard Boyer

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wednesday


 Fly Fishing 11x14


The Red Barn 12x24

I sent off these two paintings to Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon.  Lets see if it will be the right subject matter for his market. Both of the scenes could be somewhere in central Oregon, that is if you are willing to stretch the imagination.



Today I worked on a small 12x16 beach painting from southern Sweden.  I did two of this subject matter a few months ago and Southam Gallery sold them both, so of course they would like more.  And of course I had to agree, they are fun to do anyways.

Here in Salt Lake we have been having a bit of a heat wave with most of the week breaking over 100 degrees.  I heard from the wife that Sweden is 60 degrees and rain, what a joy!


Richard Boyer

Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday, July 9


Well most of the family left for Sweden yesterday, it’s just my oldest son and myself here playing bachelors.  Usually that translates into just more work, I tend to paint over the weekends then.  We will both be heading over there at the end of next week, so there are a lot of orders to be filled before then.



One of them is this painting for Southam Gallery.  I was back on it today putting in the rigging and finishing off small details in the boats. The foreground water still needs to be done, but I’ll have all day to work on that tomorrow.


Richard Boyer

Friday, July 6, 2012

Friday


For the past week and a half I have been up at the cabin painting the landscape of Heber and Kamas valley.  The Midway Art Association put on a small plein air competition and in the back of my mind, like all artists I was hoping to maybe win something or sell a painting or two.  But noooo that never happened!  But I can’t really complain too much about that, it was fun after all painting with some of my art friend.  Like most plein air events it is more about bonding with your fellow artist out in nature. In this case it was the wind, which for some odd reason would pick up to gale force status in the afternoons.  Evidence of that was in Rick’s umbrella, which snapped like a twig.  After that we figure it was next to impossible to put those things up any more, better to either paint in direct sunlight or look for a shady spot.  We also had a couple of smoke filled afternoons dealing with the brush fires in other areas of the State, the winds carried that smoke over our direction a few days in a row.


Here is a 12x24 barn I did not far from our cabin



This was a small 11x14 along the Provo River, the wind was howling that afternoon.


The show itself was on Saturday evening; they had a nice outdoor picnic table barbeque for the artists.  After that the ceremonies in the Midway town hall, where they announced the winners and those lucky few who received the purchase awards.  When it was all done, about eight of us retired back to our cabin for some libation under the stars on the porch.  There some of us got into heated battles over religion, politics and the artists way of life until two in the morning.

Monday and Tuesday they had plein air events in Heber and Midway.  We had about three to four hours to complete a painting within a certain boundary limit of the town.  So on Tuesday I painted an old house on Main Street in Midway. Robert Duncan was in the front and I was on a small street to the side of it capturing a different view.  His sold and mine did not!  Well I guess when you have a name up there it helps!

Now I’m back in Salt Lake dealing with our small laptop, since the big desktop decided to die on us.  The computer repair shop said it was the motherboard.  Basically they compared it to the spine going out on a person: it was dead and not worth fixing.  Damn, now it’s time to fork out more money for one of life necessities. 
Gone are the days when you could be content churning your own butter in the barn!

Richard Boyer

Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday, July 2

Sorry for the long delay. I have been at a plein air painting event up in Heber, Utah for the past week and that will be going on until the 4th.  It's been fun so far staying with a bunch of artists up at our cabin. We did have some very windy days to deal with and poor Rick Graham had his umbrella snap in half.

On the down side, our home computer blew up. Well actually the techie said the motherboard went out and, as he put it thats like the spine of a person going out, you just don't replace them.  Damn, now I need to shop around for a new one. Another one of those expenses you never think of!

Richard Boyer