Saturday

I did a little Christmas shopping early this morning, much better than waiting till the afternoon. I made that mistake yesterday as I drove into the masses at Sugarhouse shopping district. A simple five minute project turns into a two hour ordeal, especially when you throw snow in the equation. 

So to relax I did this small 6x10 sill life of some citrus fruit, spending just about an hour on it. The orange was eaten for lunch. 

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Just for fun I decided to buy a bunch of pears and paint them before it was too late, you know, before they all started to go over ripe.  I set up a little model stand next to the easel and arranged them on a white cloth with some leaves from the backyard.

This first one is a 6x10 inch

The next a 5x8 inches

And finally a 6x8

These quick studies are actually a blast to do, I can just get thick with the paint and play a little. I kept the sizes small enough so that I could get much of it done within an hour. Next up will be oranges, limes and lemons.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec. 16

The painting is coming more together now and I'm getting the light to do what I want. This is where I get excited about the work, that morning light will make for a great subject matter. With all the boats can see the business of the morning rush hour.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

Just another progress report as they say. I've been working more on the left side, especially the boats. And, yes I know, the one boat down at the bottom has a funny angle problem with it. I took the image from another photo where I was on a higher bridge looking more down. So tomorrow I'll have to stand back and figure out the correct perspective for the boat. In this case just to widen the stern end of the boat would help immensely. 

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I blocked in more of the boats now, which will give it more life. The two figures there are waiting for the water way to clear out under the bridge before proceeding, a regular occurrence in Amsterdam with all the water traffic. 

I won't be able to get this finished for the crit session tomorrow, but hopefully I can get enough done to give it a sense of how it will look. 

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

This cold spell is getting ridiculous. Last night it was down to 4 degrees…

I moved back to the larger 30x40 Amsterdam painting again. Working on the main architecture - the hotel in the middle there. The light is blasting in from the right side, so I want to make sure to capture that effect.  The trees there will be back light from the sun as well. So the blues really need to be played up in the shadows to contrast the warmth of the light. 

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Here is another southern Utah painting I finished off. It was sitting in my studio for the longest time until I figured out what to do. I originally had the painting in Spring colors, rather subdued shades of light green. Then I figured why not try the Cottonwood trees in their fall colors, thats usually the nicest time of season down there. This view is Polly's Island down in Grand Gulch.  We just finished a long three day hike going down Bullet Canyon and coming up here. From this point we still had two miles to walk up out of the canyon to our shuttled cars.

My daughter and I are going skate skiing this afternoon up at Mountain Dell. She is part of the Utah Nordic Alliance, I'll do a few laps there while she trains. It's going to be a cold event no matter how you slice it, last night it went down to 6 degrees. I'm thinking a little red wine tonight at the crit session should warm me back up.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I worked on this southern Utah painting today, adding some green bushes on the left. I also changed the direction of the light source. The sun now casts a shadow across the water and adds a bit more excitement. I'll take it to the crit tomorrow and see if I can get some more feedback, the figures I added in, not to sure about them though, they might not even be needed.

Richard Boyer