Thursday

This is another Amsterdam study, it took a little longer than I thought with the perspective. Yesterday I blocked it in and had to look at it a while to make sure the boats were right. When they are stacked up on top of each other in a row going back, it's quite easy to mess up the angles of the different hulls. 

This one is the smaller 16x12 study and from this I'll do that larger 30x20 that Jim Petersen wants for the show next week. 

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Today I talked with Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery and found out he has already sold two of the paintings I still have in my studio !!!

Laundry Day 24x36

A Good Book 16x12

That makes three up to date now.

After hearing that news I finished off the Mount Adams painting and added a few guts fly fishing.

And blocked in another 30x20 of Amsterdam for the show.  He has the frame at the gallery, so we will switch out an older work for this newer piece once I get it done.

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 25

This was last weeks figurative study of Lillias, maybe Jim Peterson from the Mockingbird Gallery might want to try it for the show?  It would be my first nude painting at that gallery.

I also started this 16x20 of Mount Adams for him. I stood at this very spot in the fall along the shore of Sparks Lake and the water was like glass. Out on the peninsula there were some guys fly fishing, so I want to include them into the work. That should add some nice color to the painting, since one of them had a red vest on.

On a side note we are having all the old trim work, fascia and soffit on our house replaced with composite material.  Back in 2000 the idiot contractor who built the second floor used Medium Fiber Density Board, claiming it was bullet proof. Well several years later the water got to it and it has been peeling off ever since.  The only down side is that the project will cost me $7000. Yup money in ….money out !

Looks like all that earned from the sold paintings will be going to the contractor.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I worked on a verticle piece yesterday of Amsterdam.  This same view Monet did a hundred years ago. Unfortunately his version is worth a lot more than mine.

I feel a little under the gun with all the painting I need to get done. Mockingbird wants a few more for the show in two weeks, as well as Howard/Mandville and Southam.  This painting here is for the May Gallery.

Wednesday

Another Amsterdam painting, although this one I can tell still needs some work.  The way the paintings are coming out I should have quite a bit for the crit session tomorrow.

I made my reservations for the Oil Painters of America show in Fredericksburg, Texas. This will be my first time in the state of Texas, what can I say, I've never had a strong desire to travel there.  I might have to get a tall Stetson and a six shooter.  But any ways I bought the plain ticket, hotel reservation and car rental. I'll be into this event close to a thousand dollars!!!…lets just hope they can maybe sell the painting so I can at least break even. 

The Insight Gallery, who is hosting the event did send me an email wondering if I wanted to advertise with them and a few other artists for the show. I guess they are putting a full page add in one of the art magazines with some images. So for me that could be a nice shot in the arm! 

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 18

Here is another one shot painting start to finish of Amsterdam. The church tower in the background is called Westerdok church and it was where Rembrandt was buried. In usual fashion he was placed under the stone floor inside, until the family ran out of money and could no longer pay the church tidings. Then they called upon the loved ones to come and collect what was remaining of the body to make room for somebody who could pay the yearly fee!

That must have been a pleasant day for the Rembrandt family.

I'll touch it up a bit after several day and add a few things here and there. I'm finding these small studies fun to do since they go quick.

Richard Boyer

Friday

I worked on a lot of paintings this morning from last nights crit session. I took notes and filled up two pages of small minor fixes to the works.  Most of them the average viewer wouldn't even notice, but the artist always can see it!

After that I was back on the painting of the girls bathing in the stream.  There were a few anatomical problems to deal with, as well as some flesh tone work.  The water I also played around with and brought in some of their reflections down into it.  The figured seemed to pop out almost too much against the green background, so I added some yellows and browns of dead grass to help balance the flesh tones of the girls.

And to top everything off, Ron from the May Gallery called again to say that he sold yet another smaller painting.  So far this season he has sold 21 paintings.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

With the May Gallery selling so well, I figured a few more Amsterdam paintings would be in order before the weather down in Scottsdale turns too hot. Actually I would love to get six finished off as soon as possible.

So this piece today was a one shot start to finish 12x16 painting. I know that's what I always say until I look at it in a few days and see something glaringly wrong. Tonight we have the crit session so I could bring it out there and have the artists bash it apart. 

A year ago I don't think I could have finished off a 12x16 to this level in one day, so maybe, just maybe I might be learning something. 

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I pulled some older 12x16 paintings out of the box again and decided to re-work them for the next show.  

This first one is the town of Revest des Brousses in Provence. I did it from the back porch of the stone house we were staying in. And yes I did have a glass of wine next to me, where else but in Provence. I was there several summers ago and had a blast painting with some other artists. In the piece here I toned down some of the colors and brought up the contrast.

For the wine fields I added some more detail to the background hills and played down the figures in red. The migrant farm workers were too bright and popping right out of the picture.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

This 24x36 painting the Southam Gallery had for a while and as they put it, it wasn't getting the interest.  So as the artist, I came with my tail between my legs, took it back and put it in the corner for several months to gather dust. 

Today I looked it over, blew it off and thought to myself, why not open the canyon up some more. Maybe it had a closed in feeling that was scaring off the potential buyer. So I took the preverbal jack hammer to the red cliff on the right and reduced that down so you could see more of the right side. The rocks in the lower right were also cleaned up and simplified. So now the viewer has a quieter foreground and feels like walking farther into the scene. Some of the back cliffs I also added more blue to give it that atmospheric effect. 

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 11

I worked some more on the figures, maybe a little too much. Once I get more of it done I might just blur out a few parts on the girls. Right now it need to be put aside for a while so I can see it with a fresh eye later on. 

Richard Boyer

Saturday

There is another Oil Painters of America On-line contest that I would like to enter in. So I though I would start something I've wanted to paint for a while now. Several summers ago I photographed the relatives in the stream behind the family summer home in Sweden. And in keeping with the style of Anders Zorn, I asked them to take their cloths off !!!  Where else but in Sweden.

Now I just need to paint it like Zorn. This will mean keeping it loose and with some of the anatomy a little undefined. I blocked in the figures to the correct proportions and relationship to each other and then quickly threw in some background foliage. The water will be the fun part, especially if I can keep everything loose in the style.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Well make that another four paintings. Ron called last night and said he sold a 24x36 I did of Van Gogh's Cafe.

Yes!!!

Okay back to work and reality. I finished off this small block in from the other day of Shriver Bridge in Bend, Oregon. Its an old covered bridge that now deep in the woods. So it takes a while to walk to it and in order to get this view you need to climb down a steep, vegetation covered bank and hold your camera out over the water.  It would have been very uncomfortable to stand there and paint, unless I was willing to be right in the water.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

So I sent Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery an image of the last painting I did and he casually informed me that there are no moose in the state of Oregon.  My response was, how the Hell can the entire northwest not have moose, we seem to run into them everywhere here in Utah.  So it was back to the drawing board, where I put a herd of Elk in, they have plenty of those in Oregon!

I also blocked in a few 12x16 yesterday, this one is from the fish hatchery at Wizard Falls near Camp Sherman, about 45 minutes north of Bend.

And finished it off today; trying to keep it loose with the brush strokes. The fly fisherman I added for a little shot of red color. They actually do fish from the bridge and have gotten into many a conversation with them while painting there.

Ron at the May Gallery called and said they sold another three paintings, they are on a hot streak down there!!! 

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 4

I finished off this 12x24 painting of Broken Top mountain in Oregon, another work for Mockingbird Gallery.  If you look with a magnifying glass you will notice three moose catching the last light down by the bottom right. 

The mountain I tried to keep very simple in detail, most of the shadow area is just cobalt blue mixed with cadmium red or orange, depending on whether I wanted to go purple or blue in the color.

Over the weekend Victor and I went up to our waterless cabin to fix the broken pipes we had in the dead of winter. The problem with copper is that even just a little water left in the pipe will expand and crack the metal. Most cabin owners end up with a routine of plumbing repairs every spring. Unless you change everything out for the new and updated system of Pex plastic tubes, now the standard for new home construction. 

That was our weekend job, tearing out all the old and broken copper pipes and replacing it all with new color coded plastic Pex.  Unfortunately the project was in a cold, damp and spider infested crawl space. I have the bangs and cuts to prove it all; two days later we got it all done.

I figured instead of throwing out the scrap copper pipes, maybe I could sell it all to a metal recycle business. So I stood in line with all the other homeless trying to make a few dollars from their supposidly found bits of scrap metal and catalytic converters.  When all was weighed I walked away with $72. Not bad, maybe I should get into the metal stealing business and start ripping out people's old copper plumbing systems. 

Richard Boyer

Friday

I found this old painting in the basement, something I did eons ago in Germany. Its a 30x70 cm, so I'll restretch it into a 12x24 and put it in a frame for the Mockingbird Gallery.  Now I did touch it up a bit this morning with the brush.  With some glazes I brought up the color quite a bit. The left boat was more or less just black and white, so I added some reds to the hull and yellows to the white wood on the top side.  The right boat I added a lot of orange to the stern wall.

Richard Boyer