Thursday

A few days ago Howard/Mandville Gallery sold this large 40x30 painting. they told me someone was buying it as an anniversary present…wow, is all I can say about that !!!

So the pressure was let up a little and I decided to work on something fun for a bit. this little 9x12 i did yesterday. Something bothered me about the guy, so I painted him over three times until I felt he was right.  I hate that when you have a painting in mind, but it takes so much longer than you think to get it on canvas, at least to get it right!

I think I'll title this "Who is she?"  It looks like she heard some bad news on the bridge.

Tomorrow I have a show with A.D. Shaw at Southam Gallery; A.D. is actually coming out with a book about his work and will be signing it. I once asked him what the A.D. stands for, but he said he would have to kill me if he told me!  Obviously a first name he was not happy about so he took the abbreviation instead.  It will be fun to hang out for that at the gallery.

I re-worked a 30x40 painting also for the show

The town of Bonnieux, which I did last year needed a road I thought. Something to bring the viewer into the work.

This is generally a lot of fun, playing around with a painting and trying different things here and there. The road I like since it invites you to slowly walk along the gravel path to the town.

Richard Boyer

Friday

This one I re-worked a little after the last crit session. The water I think was too dark and needed to be lightened up, more sky reflections in it. Now it seems a lot better. The fly fisherman was also moved down along the bank more, I felt he was a little too small in size for the painting. that also left room for another smaller figure near the bridge, a fishing buddy.

I finished off my fun painting as well. The 14x26 format looks really nice. I just need to build a frame for it over the weekend. All of these need to be brought down to Southam Gallery next week for their show.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Three weeks or more have gone by with the duplex on the market and still no real bites. I was kind of afraid of this, heading into the winter. Seems like most people buy houses in the Spring and Summer when all the flowers are out and lawns are green. So every week I go by to rake up leaves and leap the yard clean. They are having people interested and they do go through the place with clients, but no contracts have been signed.

I worked on this 12x16 yesterday and today of the Provo River up in Heber. Southam Gallery sold the other 12x16 river painting I did with Fly fishermen in it. They said it was out the door quite quick after I brought it in, so now they want more river works, especially from this area.

This one I also started today, its a new format for me. I'm doing a gallery wrap where the canvas is wrapped behind the stretch bars leaving the side of the painting clean of staples. then I'll float it in a more modern frame that I'll make from wood myself. Kim from Southam Gallery thought maybe I should try more contemporary frames for those clients living in modern homes, as she put it glass houses.  The nice thing is that I can do odd sizes, I'm not bound by ready made frames. This one is 14x26 inches.

Richard Boyer

Friday

I finished off the painting of Charlotte today. The way the dress was blowing in the earlier version made her look a little fat, thick at the waist. And I know she would not approve of that. the wind was actually filling up the dress from underneath, so I had to lie a bit and take it down in the waist area. I also added more color to the dress pattern and the towels she is carrying.

The path has a nice lead-in which I like, your eye moves up it to the top of the dune where the clouds have a diagonal to counteract the hill.  I'll keep it around the studio for a while to make sure there is no last minute changes I want to do before handing it off to the Southam Gallery.

The Zions show went well last night. Several artist friends of ours sold rather well. They seem to be able to pull in the high end buyers at that event.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I worked some more on Charlotte, mainly her face and clothing. I really like the way everything seems blowing in the wind, she is actually fighting it as she works her way down the path. Oh yes the path will come in later when I start working on the dune grass. Tomorrow I'll start in on the sky to show the nice diagonal in the clouds.

Tomorrow night we will be heading down to the Zions Bank show, a collection of about 70 local artist selling their work. Rick Graham and Karen Horne, both from the crit session will be trying their luck at the show. So the rest of use will come along to give them some support. They do a nice job with the catering, but alas being an LDS church event there will be no libations !

Richard Boyer