Friday

I finished off the Copenhagen painting today. After the crit session last night I had a few minor changes to do, adding some highlights here and there.  I also worked a little more on the water. 

Now that it is done, I'm not sure to which gallery I should send it?  Maybe I could just keep it in the studio for the first one to say they need more work.

This 40x30 was also finished off yesterday. I'll be sending it off to the Howard/Mandville Gallery next week

Richard Boyer 

Tuesday

I'm back from southern Utah. I could have posted from down there if I had one of those smart phones, unfortunately I just have a simple dumb phone with no internet.  The trip was productive with the group of artist I traveled with; which is usually the case. I would be full of energy in the morning for the first session, then still ready to go in the afternoon.  Some of our members would burn out in the afternoon yet come alive in the evening; so I would be grudgingly hauled along to do the sunset painting, which more or less turned out quite nice!. All in all I did around 12 paintings on location, sometimes working on three in one day.  So now during the week as I work on them I'll put up the pictures.

Today I decided to work on this painting I started of Copenhagen, with all the perspective and rigging it will take some time to do. Not unlike the last boat painting I did.

Well as I was down there painting away in Kanab, Jim Peterson texted me with the good news that he sold two of my pieces at the gallery.  Both of them figurative paintings, which I am glad for since it's been a little dry lately.

Richard Boyer 

Monday, Aug. 19

So we tried another route up to Devil's Castle by Alta, Utah. Saturday afternoon we drove up to Albion Basin Camp grounds at around 10,000 and spent the night for the Sunday climb  The weather was quite a bit cooler up there.

Here was an evening shot of our goal from the camp ground.

In the morning we had more moose visiting us for breakfast.  We broke camp and started hiking up the mountain, actually one of the ski runs we take in winter.

Once we hit the ridge there was a nice view looking down into Heber and Midway on the other side. 

We tried walking along the ridge-line but found it to be too rocky with up and down climbs. So we descended down a bit and took a steep angled walk along the slope to just below the peak and went up from there. The top offered spectaculars views all around and we ended up staying there for close to an hour watching a glider soaring high above the mountains.

Tomorrow I am heading down to Mount Carmel in Southern Utah, there is a painting festival down there with quite a number of well known artists. Bryce Liston and I wanted to brush a bit with them. 

Richard Boyer 

Wednesday

I did a little fine tuning of the face on this painting. After looking at it for several days, something was bothering me about the eyes and mouth area. So I flipped the painting and reference material upside down and started making small millimeter changes; sure enough that's all what was needed. Its those small details that make all the difference in the world.  Now the painting looks more like Charlotte, our relative over in Sweden.

I'll take it through the crit session tomorrow to see what other small fix-ups it might need.

Richard Boyer 

Monday, Aug. 12

For the last couple days we have been watching the Tour of Utah bike race, wondering how anyone could have the energy to race full out, one hundred miles a day for five or six days. Legs of iron comes to mind!

Well yesterday we decided to try our own iron man activity by climbing up Devils Castle at Alta Ski resort. The top elevation just 30 feet shy of 11,000 on the right summit. 

Here is our goal from the shore of Secret Lake. From here we slogged up the steep scree field of loose rocks between the summit and mount Sugarloaf.

After a few hours we made it to the top of the ridge-line.

The rest of the way to the actual rock summit was along the knife edge ridge with some good exposure along 800 foot cliffs. We met several climbing parties just making it up to the summit as well. Lina my daughter loved it. 

Here we are at the top.

When we finally made it back to the car we were greeted by a few moose waiting for us. They seemed rather confused about the parking lot and took their time crossing in front of the car.

Richard Boyer 

Friday

Always keep fresh in the painting, so that's why I switched out to work some more on this piece. I really need to get it done this week if I want to get it in the Legacy Gallery Salon show. The deadline is the 21 of the month.  

Tonight at 5:15 they will close off the Avenues, our neighborhood and we will be locked in the area while the tour of Utah bike race goes around us. I'm not sure how many laps it means, but they are covering some 35 miles. They start at the capital and ride around City Creek Canyon, then on to eleventh avenue, down Virginia, along South Temple back to the Capital hill climb again to make the rectangle.

I'm thinking a bottle of Chardonnay by the finish at the Capital would be in order.

Richard Boyer 

Wednesday

I broke out the alleyway painting again. I had it set aside to finish off some other stuff, but then Howard/Mandville sent "the email" wondering how the progress was coming on the new piece. The guilt set in and I figured it was time to finish it off and get it to the gallery.

Here is a picture of it this morning

Now I've finished off more of the left side adding some of the buildings in shade. It still has a long way to go and with that in mind the painting can become a little boring for me.  Any time I start dealing with architectural issues in a work they tend to suck up time, sometimes dragging on for weeks. My only choice it to press on and get the thing done.

I still have some figures I need to add down the road to give it interest and maybe a little laundry or flowers for color.

Richard Boyer 

Thursday

The large Italian painting we finally got out of the crate and hung at the Southam gallery.  Kim, who is one of the owners there, is getting married tomorrow and a bunch of artist and clients are invited. So as Jack Sparrow says from "Pirates of the Caribbean" ; "I love weddings, drinks all around!"  It will be a fun event and I am glad for her.

She is going to hold it in the evening up one of the canyons, so it should be nice to get out of the heat.

I started this 30x24 today; another painting of Charlotte with her horse. There is a show down at the Legacy Gallery in November and I would love to get into it with this piece.  They tend to deal with a lot of western subject matter.

Richard Boyer