Thursday

Its sunny again, just right for this evenings events. my daughter is dressing up really bad, old jeans, black shirt and leather jacket with a clock around her neck..She's going to have a "Bad Time!!!"

I worked so more on the architecture. So now its done enough so I can start to fuzz some of it back out as I work on the rigging. With the boats in front they can not compete with the background buildings. That will require some brush strokes over some parts of the architecture to push it farther back into space. 

I'll need to also do some thinking as to the right side of the painting.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I forgot to post the result of our pumpkin carving session from Sunday night; now we are ready for Halloween on Thursday. After the trick or treaters we will head up to Nick's place for a Halloween crit session.

Well once again I started a painting that is far too complicated. Here is the start as I work my way down the row of buildings. I never seem to learn from the torture session of perspective, architecture and boats. Maybe I just like the finished product so much; the last one I did sold direct to the client!.

Right now its raining outside, so the studio is dark. This morning when I got up it was dark. It seems we are heading into the grays of winter. Would be nice to sleep in until at least the sunrise, but with school and getting the kids out the door, that won't be happening for a while. This is where you start dreaming of lying on a tropical beach with not a care in the world…:-)

Richard Boyer

Monday, Oct. 28

So this is the final version on the cafe painting. Not much was need from the crit session last Thursday. They wanted the foreground potted plants subdued a bit, along with the caulk-board menu sign over to the right. Some of the umbrellas were also blued down a little on the shadow side and made brighter on the sunny side.

This mornings project was to fix up two small 11x14 paintings I got back from Howard/Mandville Gallery. This first one from Stockholm I re-worked some of the pylons to the left, which added some more dynamics.

This other cafe piece I added some more color, flowers and an umbrella to the left side.  All of these pieces I will be sending over to Southam Gallery here in Salt Lake City.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Today I hoped around here and there on the painting, orchestrating as I like to call it. Trying to pop areas with more contrast and adding color to other parts. It's now done enough for the crit session, done enough for them to find small faults to fix for tomorrow.

In the afternoons I have been moon-lighting at another job, helping to renovate a place. Yesterday I was sanding and cleaning some old baseboard trim we were re-using; running the wash cloth along the old oak in a hastily haphazard sort of way, when I felt the sharp jab of pain.  An old oak splinter shot into my little finger about a quarter inch, buried deep and visable under the skin on the other side of my pinky.

I can't really complain too much since I have had my fair share of splinters. Its just nice when you can take them out in a timely manner. This one I had no tools to get out and had to keep working until I was picked up for a ride home in the evening. 

Once home I went to the local doctor, my son Victor. At age 18 he is into anything medically related and loves to take out splinters. I was given a shot of single malt as he took a razor blade to my finger and finally after a lot of digging around he was able to pull it out. The patient survived, as well as the doctor. 

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I hate the feeling you get after you photograph the painting, put it in the frame and are just about ready to deliver it to the gallery. You take one last look at it and the feeling hits you, that it's not just there yet, another words the painting could be better.

So I took it back out and re-worked the entire foreground.

here is how it looked before

and now after lightening up the grass and some of the village.  Now I feel better!!!

I worked on this piece afterwards, mainly the plants and foreground cement. Tomorrow I'll finish it up for the evening crit session. The crit session where I take notes to find all the things that need to be re-worked and re-painted the next day... 

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Well I figured out what to do on the right side, adding a few tables with guests and a waiter. So now it will be the plants and lead in with the foreground, maybe some thick pallet knife there. that will be tomorrows project.

Last night we had a model session at Rick Graham's place. Sitting next to Robert Duncan I feel like I'm always playing catch-up. I look over and he is so much farther along on his painting. Well I just need to practice more I guess, a lot more!!!

Richard Boyer

Monday, Oct. 21

I'm back in Salt Lake City, back to the daily grind as they say, the nine to five….. Okay I admit I don't look at it that way, I actually look forward to work, addicted as they say.

It was good to see the folks again and visit people back east. The experience of showing the kids where I grew up and how it is back in that part of the country was priceless.

This morning I worked on this older painting Jim sent back to me from the Mockingbird Gallery. The gallery here is Salt Lake saw it and said they wanted to give it a try. So since its been in Jim's gallery for a year and a half, I touched it up a bit and decided to let the Southam's have a go with it.

In the afternoon I was back on this piece, defining some of the figures better. Tomorrow I'll need to contemplate what to do with the right side. I know it will need some people there at a table, maybe more off in the distance. 

Richard Boyer

Saturday

Yesterday we did the trip with Captain Rob Powell out into the open water of the Niagara River, then back up the Erie Canal for a bit. The weather was sunny but cold,

but our salty sea-dog kept the course straight and true. Nobody had to walk the plank!

Later in the afternoon we took a drive out to Akron state park to check out the fall colors. My family had this desire to walk in a typical deciduous forest from the East coast. They are deprived living in the pine forests of Utah.

We walked along the muddy path up to the main falls that gives the park its claim to fame. One of the things the newbies found out about was how the leaves cover over the water and muddy sink holes. Several shoes were covered in black mud by the end of the hike.

We reached the falls at last for this view and then hiked up the steep muddy incline to the top, grabbing onto the trees as belay points on the way up.

Tomorrow we have a 6:10 am flight to catch out of Buffalo...:-/

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Today we did the epic trip to Niagara Falls. They wouldn't let us take the barrel across the bridge, maybe they were a bit suspicious. We did park the car on the American side and walked across the Rainbow Bridge, recommended by many as a way to avoid long lines at the customs and parking problems once over there.
The wind was blowing the mist over the walkway so we did get a bit wet near the edge.

We walked around in the sun to dry off and then took the elevator down for the tour under the falls. "Cave of the Winds" they call it, as they hand you a plastic poncho to cover your body. A short trip down about one hundred feet and the temperature drops about twenty degrees..

One path lead outside to a side platform next to the falls and yes the water was flying everywhere. I had to get behind a pillar to keep the water from landing all over the camera.

The other tunnels took you to a spot behind the main Horseshoe Falls, there you could see the force of the water thundering over the edge.

From the side of the falls I was able to get this view looking across to the American side.  We headed back up to the top for a very over priced lunch at the local tourist trap and headed over to the wax museums.

We had a small problem with some of the local reptiles there. But soon we were wandering around the Disneyland part of Niagara Falls, the area where they pack all the wax museums, curio shops and tourist shops together and cover them with neon signs.

We picked the largest wax museum and had a meeting with some famous people, my daughter had coffee with with Elvis here. Humpfry Bogart is in the background.

Richard Boyer.

Friday

We had the crit session last night and i brought out these two paintings below. It wouldn't really matter how many times I bring out the same painting, they would find something to tear apart on it. 

With the girl here, she had a few facial features to fix up. There was a dark shadow line on the corner of her mouth that added some age to her. The forehead was also a bit uneven which added to the problem. Well I fixed them up some more and have to admit it does make her look younger now. At age 19 the last thing a woman wants to hear is that her portrait looks as if she is thirty plus years old!

On the mountain top village I changed the lower right building and warmed up the rocks in the background.  Now we will see how it does at the market!

Don't know if I'll be posting tomorrow, since on Sunday we all fly back East; well at least me and the kids for fall break.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Day two on the painting. I worked manly on the umbrellas and some of the background. Tomorrow I'll have to start in on the figures and hopefully I can keep them loose, using those pesky lost edges again so as not to get so detailed.

I have this duplex, actually my first home that I bought back in the late 80's. It was sold to me as a duplex, the only problem being that it was never registered as a legal duplex.  So many years later the city is going around now trying to "Grandfather clause" these un-documented rental units. The problem being with their inspections they are trying to impose all these modern day restrictions on them and now I am hit with a list of things to change. If I don't I face the wrath of the city government. 

Some of the requirements are railings placed in spots nobody would ever use. Ground fault plugs put in here and there, the list goes on…

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

So next weekend we fly back east to visit my parents for a week and what does Southam gallery do; they call me up and request a large cafe painting.  Just another one of those complicated subject matters that can take weeks…bring it on !!!

This would be the block-in, figuring out the composition.

I've picked another scene from the hilltop town of Gordes, my future retirement village in sunny Provence.  With the stone facade from the 1600's it makes for some great backdrops in a cafe painting. In the middle of the square is a fountain adorn with flowers, picturesk beyond belief...  This is where they filmed "A Good Year" from Peter Mayle's book. You might remember him as the author from "A Year in Provence"

Richard Boyer

Monday, October 7

So over the weekend they had the "Underwear Race" along side the LDS Church General Conferance.  Talk about conflicting view points, both polar opposites of each other and a thorn in each others side. I, personally am glad the organizers of the underwear race were allowed to do it the same weekend, although it was cold, it certainly made for some interesting shots on the Salt Lake Tribune's on-line site:   http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56959765-78/run-downtown-lake-salt.html.csp

If the link doesn't work just copy the address and paste it in your browser.

Today I finished up small touches on the larger version 30x24 of Felicia reading in a quiet corner.  Trying to keep the edges soft was my biggest problem, I tend to get too detailed and hard edge everywhere.  Somebody really needs to start slapping me when I do that…and I sent the image off to Jim at Mockingbird Gallery to see if he would be interested. It's just the frame I am waiting on now from Wallis Brothers Frame, they can take their time sometimes.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Well Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon sold this small 12x9 painting, basically a few days after he got it.  There is something about girls reading books that is popular !!!

So now I have some lunch money as he puts it.

For the weekend I wanted to share something I got a while ago about artists. One of those inspirational, shot in the arm type of expresions:

“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

Thursday

Okay now this cold or flu is starting to get really old. I have tried hanging garlic on the front door and around my neck, posies in my pocket, but still the aliment affects me. Maybe the rats running around the house might have something to do with the large boils under my arm pits that have started to form?

Any ways the painting goes on. I found out from Howard/Mandville that their show starts next week and I was thinking sometime in November…maybe if I had read their email I would have been better informed!

So I blasted this small 14x11 in this morning from the town of Bonnieux, Provence.

And with this one from yesterday I am set, I'll get them in the mail tomorrow and live will go on, provided I don't succumb to the plaque.

Richard Boyer