Monday, June 30

I've been plugging away at this one still: adding a few figures at the top and some hollyhocks on the left side to mix in some more color.  I feel like it still needs something, but not sure just what that might be? The best thing to do it to set it aside and look at it after a few days.

Its back down to my second job this afternoon, working at the duplex.  The railing I've basically re-built , at least a third of it and now need to put the final coat of paint on.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I defined the church and steps more today, figuring out how I want the composition to be. The stone stairs seem to have a nice lead-in up the hill. I'll know more once I get some of the plants and grasses to the side figured out. There is also a stone wall up on the left side that will add to the composition.

I went to the clinic yesterday where the doctor dug around in my open wound with some tweezers and found nothing remaining from the stick that was there. She did flush it out with Peroxide and told  me to do the same twice a day.  Somehow digging around in a hole with a Q-tip is not my kind of thing.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I started a 30x24 painting here with Howard/Mandville Gallery in mind. They seem to do well when I paint stairs leading up to churches…I'm not going to get into the phycological implications on that one.
But it is a popular subject there. The sunlight was really playing up on the old stone steps, laid down some 600-800 years ago. The fun part will be capturing the characteristic quality of all the settling stones at their odd angles.  When done I am hoping the eye will slowly follow up the path to the church at the top.  Most likely I will put some kind of a figure up close to the arch to add to the drama.

I've been working at the duplex for the past week. We finally got the dead-beat tenants out of there and are in the process of fixing up all the damage. One of the largest major problems, not related to the tenants, was the back deck which was one of my first construction projects. After 25 years the supporting lumber has been slowly rotting away. so it was off with the old redwood planks and replacing the structure underneath with pressure treated wood. The railing also needs to be replaced in parts, all of which I painstakingly worked on eons ago, so I am trying to copy the same details again.

One of the by-products of working with renovations is the injury side of it, the banging of fingers with  hammer, the splinters, bumps and scrapes.  About a week ago I stepped in the wrong spot while taking out some dead bushes and impaled myself on a branch. Well actually the half-inch branch went an inch or so into my calf; so I quickly pulled it back out and hoped for a speedy recovery. A few days ago it was swelling up and my son took more bits of the stick out of the wound.

Now its still swelling up and time for me to head to the clinic to have it cut open and really cleaned out. There must be still part of that branch imbedded in my calf. Arg….

Salt Lake City is holding its art festival downtown for the next four days, so maybe I'll get my mind off of this by wondering around with the family tomorrow evening.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

This painting I've been working on for the last couple of days. The owner of Berkley Gallery said figures do sell if one can't recognize the face. I guess people are bothered buying a figure they don't know…that attitude would have put Anders Zorn out of business !

So I turned her head to look forward, picking out a path through the lilly pads. The painting still needs some work, but with me I just can not see what it is right now. So it will sit in the studio for a few days while I start another piece. It may just need to go through a critique session to figure it out.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Here is the finished version of Fall River Falls. Now its just to let it dry a bit and send it off to Mockingbird Gallery next week. I've already sent the owner some images of the work for his web site.

This little 12x16 I did yesterday of Sparks Lake, which is just west of Bend, Oregon, a little past Mt Bachelor Ski Resort. I really liked the way that one pine tree stands alone at the edge of the grove of trees. The water was very still that day and made for some nice reflections.

Tonight I'm off to Park City to celebrate Midsummer with all the Swedes. Everyone gathers around the table with food, songs and shots of Vodka. And yup this is usually a dangerous event with the amount they can drink. The festival is actually quite large with thirty or so bringing food and drinks. Afterwards they all play silly games in a drunken state. It all ends up being quite hilarious.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I decided to take a break and work on some quick studies from the Bend, Oregon area for the Mockingbird Gallery. This first 12x16 I did a few days ago in basically one session, trying to keep it quick and loose like a plain air painting. The view is up along the Metolius River by the Fish Hatchery;  a popular spot for the fly fishermen. There the water flows over an old lava bed and has a rich blue color from the rock below.

The next one was yesterday's project, the same river but farther upstream by a place called Camp Sherman. Its another popular spot with cabins for rent.

Today's painting is farther south along the Fall River. I just followed the other artists out to this painting location a few seasons ago and found this falls called "Fall River Falls", can't get much more original than that !  Now the water isn't quite done yet. The paint went on a little thick and of course it gets polluted with other neighboring colors. So if I let it set up over night I can come back in with warmer white again and give it more form.

I'll see if I can squeeze off a fourth painting and mail them all off next week to Jim.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well when you work with eviction lawyers things get on the fast track. The tenant was evicted yesterday. She left behind a boat load of garbage, old broken particle-board furniture, dirty dishes, holes in the walls and the list goes on. We will be moving the junk out and repairing for several weeks to come. The tenant was one of the biggest pigs we have ever had :-/

So to console my feelings I did this small 10x16 study of a cafe in Amsterdam. I'll send it up to Howard/Mandville Gallery soon.

This 18x24 painting of Stockholm I also re-worked a bit. The water needed some more light on it and the trees I added more orange sunlight. Now its looking finished and ready for the Coos Bay show.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I haven't been writing so much lately, life seems to be getting busy. I have a pair of dead-beat tenents that I need to evict as soon as possible. they signed a lease at the duplex I own and then decided not to pay....go figure!  So now I need to pay a lawyer to physically have them evicted.

With the heat of the summer arriving in Salt Lake I am finding fast portions of the lawn dying since the springing head were dead, too corroded up with calcium deposits to turn the gear driven ones.

My son is also graduating tomorrow so we have a little party planed for him on Friday.

Any ways I'm digressing. This painting, a 18x24 I started a few days ago, another one for the Coos Bay show. It still needs some fine tuning especially with the foreground boat in shadow. The water might need some touch up work as well.

Richard Boyer