Tuesday

Finally back from my trip to Coos Bay and Bend, Oregon. The weather actually held out and I was able to paint under blue skies almost everyday. I stayed two nights at Dutch Mostert's place in North Bend. From his porch you can see the harbor of Coos Bay, he has one of those houses any artist would love to have, as they say in Real Estate, location, location, location.

On Sunday I loaded up my work from the summer show at the museum and then we went out painting with a few other artists on the beach. I was rather insisting on a coastal thing since we don't have that in Utah. It's not that often I can set up the easel looking out across the Pacific Ocean.

This little 12x16 I did from the sand dunes looking towards the sun. I was trying to capture the light on the water and my eyes felt it at the end of the session. The figures I added today in the studio from another photo shoot I did in July in Coos Bay.  It's actually two kids building a sand castle.

Monday morning I was off to Bend, Oregon driving along some gorgeous scenery. First up the coast to a valley with a river coming down.  There I follow the road as it winded along the river up a broad green valley, up to I-5 then north to Eugene. There I followed the McKensey River Valley all the way up to basically the source then over the pass and down into Sisters, Oregon.

Jim told me to paint a falls on the way up, just before the pass Sahalie spills out over a limestone formation. There I set up by this moss covered area to work on a 16x12; that is until it started to drizzle. The forecast called for rain that day.

The next day I went to Smith Rock to work on another 12x16; where I was entertained by climbers on the wall to my right.

In the afternoon I worked on a small 11x14 of some rabbit brush; I decided to title it Wabbit Brush from Bugs Bunny.  On Wednesday I went down to the gallery to spend the morning touching up some of the work I sent him in the spring. Adding a little extra paint here and there, it's something I tend to do every time I go to one of my galleries.

That afternoon I was out again following a road up into the mountains to another falls, Tomalo Falls. I liked the way the cliff was making the entire foreground in shadow. So I set up at the end of a little view platform not far from the parking lot with all the visitors taking pictures of the scene I was painting. The next day it was back into the gallery for more painting and chatting with clients. Most gallery owners like when the artist sets up in the gallery, it helps to draw people in, they are always curious as to what the artist is working on.

Later on in the afternoon I went out to paint Mirror Pond, behind the gallery with the setting light.

On Friday it was Gallery Walk Night in Bend with two sculpture artists at the gallery having a show. For me it was fun to meet some more members of the gallery.

The next day I was back on the road to Salt Lake.

Richard Boyer