Wednesday

I worked on the water and grasses today. Bringing them up to the same level as the figures.  There are still a few things that bother me about it and I can not put my finger on it just quite yet. This usually means setting it aside and looking at it in a few days time; then hopefully it will pop out at me!

Victor started up nordic jumping yesterday at the Olympic jumps at Park City. He wanted to get into in more this year after trying it for the first time last year. They meet twice a week until they can get to the level where they fly off the 90 meter, then they can do the Saturday training as well.  

While he was jumping I decided to at least do a skate ski workout on the track they have set up there just below the jumps. The course was good, but for the first of the season and at that elevation (7000) I feel it in the lungs. Yes, I was panting all the way around the five kilometer loop. Tomorrow I will do it again and hopefully the body will be more use to it!  Time to get back into shape again…

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec. 17

As expected I have been struggling a little with the figures, painting the left one too large in the beginning and having to go back into it to re-paint that area. 

Today I decided to work a little on the water. There is some grasses growing from the sand underneath that I will put in, but first I need to get the waves in place.  It's so much easier to do that without all the other stuff in the way. There is a really nice reflection of the girls down below which I would like to play up.

That will be for tomorrow, now it's time for some Christmas shopping.  

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I was back on this painting today, working on the figures.  To nail them down right this, at least for me will take some time, going back and forth. So to my right side is an open book of Anders Zorn and I keep looking at how easy that bastard made it look. A true master at his field, a few quick brush strokes and the face is done!

Well with me it will take a lot longer, so let the 20,000 brush strokes begin !!!

Howard/Mandville Gallery came through and sold this large 40x30 painting.  "Sweet!!"

Unfortunately the way things work out with payments I won't be seeing that check until after Christmas Holidays.  But still I can not complain, it has been a good fall for me with the sales.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday, Dec. 11

I started this one over the weekend.  The Oil Painters of America show deadline is coming up so I had better start working on something for it.  This will be my daughter and her cousin walking through the water in Sweden.  It's just the block-in stage now.

The other painting here I worked on the last couple of days.  This is the town of St. Remy in Provence. Here Van Gogh spent fifteen months in the hospital painting some 150 works.  

I just saw this arch and decided that a nice sunlit cafe at the other side would look good. At this stage I could call it done, but know I'll just have to live with it a bit longer and see what else it could use in a few days.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Today I was back on the town of Bonnieux, working on some of the foreground.  The crit group said the village jumped out too much against the green foliage, so I put a little orange in the trees and green/blue in the buildings. this trick plays down that contrast and hopefully sets the buildings more in the environment. 

Still when painting this view I keep wishing I had the house from where it was painted. Sitting on the porch with a view like this would be the best.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec. 3.

I worked a little on the boat painting. The shirt on my daughter had to be lightened up a bit and something needed to be done with her right hand. I decided to have her grabbing a water lilly to add some interest.  A few edges were also softened here and there, so now its ready to be left along again for a week to see what else I could do to it. It's seems like a never ending process.

Over the weekend I signed up for and took part in the Wheeler Farm Christmas market fair.  Wheeler farm is a historic farm they preserved from the pioneer times and managed to actually keep away the developers.  Outside of their 70 farm are the sprawling suburbs of Murray, Utah with strip mall after strip mall.  Not a pretty sight!

So there I sold my calendars and met a lot of people. It was good weekend and I sold eighteen of them along with some older cards I had.  

Richard Boyer

Saturday

“Artists are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, artists face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because artists are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Artists are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.”

- David Ackert