Tuesday

I worked some more on the foreground, trying to keep it all in shadow and less defined, so the eye would look at the village more.  Tomorrow I can start the orchestration part of it, by pushing the highlights here and there on the buildings.  This is usually the part that can go on for weeks.  

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

This painting is now officially driving me insane, to much information to paint, to many damn buildings. I'm to the point where I could just level a large area of the piece and put in a Walmart, maybe even add a large parking lot to go with it.  Then again it might be a little harder to sell to the right client!

Actually most of the buildings are in place now, leaving just the foreground foliage leading up to the wall. Once that is done I can go back and orchestrate the light better on some of the village. Any way I look at it this thing will take much more time to paint than planned. 

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving without too many over-eating pains. We will be having some close friends over for the fest and libations. 

Richard Boyer

Monday, Nov. 19

I worked some more on the Bonnieux painting. The background I felt needed to be defined before I could continue with the rest of the village.  Also with the clouds in place it makes a lot more sense with the light logic.

Over the weekend it was pointed out to me that the calendar I am selling has a mistake or two. It took a neighbor to see the glaring mistake the layout person did from the print company.  He put January first as a Friday, when it should be on a Tuesday. So as a result all the dates for January are messed up and the buyer will need to correct it with a pen or sharpie.  He also gave February 31 days ?!!  I sent off an angry email to him, but it's all too late  Now I have a quirky calendar with the month of January off, maybe it will become a collectors item like the stamps that were printed up-side down by the Postal Service.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Tonight is the Southam Gallery "30 Year Anniversary Show" and yes, the artists will be there.

So I dropped off a few works yesterday so they could get them hung and ready for the big event.  But, there is always a but when the artist goes into the Gallery; I was given a few pieces to take home!

This one I was told gave the viewer a closed in feeling, trapped in the gorge as it were.

 

So this morning I took out the paints and played the roll of the all mighty, changing around the geological history a few million years and pushed back the canyon wall a bit, also eroding some of it down so one could see the sky.  Now hopefully the viewer will feel more open space!

I sent an image off to them and hopefully they will want to re-try it now.

Richard Boyer

And by the way, some of you people looking at the blog site; you could really help me out by ordering one of my calendars...they do make for some nice Christmas gifts!

Tuesday, Nov.13

So over the weekend we got over four feet of snow in the mountains.  Here in the Avenues I must have shoveled two feet of wet heavy snow and as expected my back feels it. Our backyard here looks like a winter wonderland!  With all this new snow most of the major ski resorts are opening up this week, Brighton has opened for today.

To counteract the snow, I decided to work on this small beach painting, where the temperature is near 80 degrees with a light breeze blowing!  I got a few back from Howard/Mandville Gallery and decided to attack this one.  There was a rather large figure in the foreground, so I painted her out and put a group of people in the middle ground and re-painted the water.  now I think it looks a lot better and could maybe sell at the Southam Gallery show this Friday.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Last night was the Zion's Bank Art show in downtown Salt Lake City. They put on this one night only art extravagance with 30 or so artists and full catering. It's a lottery system to get in, but once in you are allotted a ten foot wide grid to display your artwork. Live music groups played on each of the four floors they have set aside for the event. Its a big deal for the artist since you need to be set up at 6:00 in the evening and take everything down after 9:00, but you do meet a lot of people which is good for the networking.

I tried to get into it this year but didn't make it from the hat draw; our friend Sid Colton did. So we were there visiting him and offering out moral support, (not financial!!!).  There were of course a lot of fine artists there, many of which I visited and chatted with as the servers came around with food for the clients.

I nice warm breeze was blowing throughout the evening, the precursor to the cold front moving through. This morning I woke up to snow and the white stuff has been coming down ever since. The next three days are forecasted for snow, so it looks like winter has officially arrived.

I worked more on the hill top village again.  It's going to be another one of those paintings I have to methodically move along dealing with the architecture. Yup, this will take a while to finish!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I started another 30x40 hill top village. This time the town of Bonnieux in Provence.

Southam Gallery had somebody come in last week very interested in the last one I did of Gordes, Provence.  So they made sure I knew about it and asked if I could start something to replace the painting if sold before the show on the 16th.  So since I have always wanted to paint Bonnieux I figured that would make a good subject matter and as usual it will prove to be a nightmare with the architecture cascading down the hillside. 

The big question is whether or not I can get it done in time? 

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I've been working slowly on the boat painting here, seems to be taking it's time, I've been pre-occupied with other things lately.  But I did work on the water, now I have to bring the figures up to a better level than just the block-in stage, also the boat.  Once that is done then I can start orchestrating the entire piece so it looks more finished.

Last night we went to the "Blue October" concert.  Our neighbor Rose got some "meet the band" tickets; so we went earlier at four in the afternoon to meet the group and listen to them do their sound check.  It was interesting but hard on the feet, since I was standing basically the entire day from painting in the morning to meeting them, then waiting in line to stand at the concert until one in the morning.  Now we did get in early and got to the very front row, close enough to see everything including the sweat!

The group put on a perfect performance as usual with Justin, the lead singer's emotional music. Nick got a few iPhone pics from the performance I thought I would share with you. The warm up band "Silent Film" from England were also very good. I bought their signed CD at the show.

Lead singer Justin Furstenfeld

here is his main side man, violinist Ryan Delahoussaye

Richard Boyer