Monday, March 31

Well my oldest son turned 21 yesterday. So in the typical irresponsible fashion of somebody just becoming legal age to drink, he and all his 21 year old friends went out to a bar at 11:55pm on Saturday.  The bouncer made him wait four minutes until midnight and then let him in.  I thought back to when I turned 21; I was outside of Utah working on a fishing boat up in Alaska, where at that time the drinking age was 18… C'est la Vie!

We woke up to snow this morning and grey skies.  Welcome back to winter!  With a stout cup of coffee I painted the center boat in today; still illuminated by the last rays of sun.  I'm thinking it might need another boat farther back to the left of it, just something to help with the composition. So I'll set it aside for a few days to think it over.

I missed doing the short studies over the weekend, there just seemed to be too much I had to do.  So today I did a little close up of our relative Charlotte in Sweden.

The Howard/Mandville Gallery came through with three sales…..yippi!!!

Potted Flowers 30x40

Lunch Time Cafe 24x36

and

this little 14x11 called "Church Wall"

So now they want some more works ASAP…looks like I might be busy.

Richard Boyer

Friday

I started this study yesterday, but one thing after the other kept coming up. At 3:00 we headed out to the Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley to watch "Les Miserables"  The performance was done so well it brought most to tears, I've never seen a version as good as they did it, well worth the ticket price.

I worked on a few changes from the crit session, much of which would be to small to mention.

An example would be the water is this one. They felt there wasn't enough distance from the shallow water to the canoe..

So I added some more blue down at the bottom to correct it. The group also mentioned that I should bring some more reds in some place besides the canoe, so I added some reddish color on the shore of the left bank.

My study today was one of the vendors at a market in Provence.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I finished off the small changes on this 12x16. The canoe I actually painted a little larger from yesterday and added some more color to the foreground. Now it has a nice lead-in to it from the submerged logs, to the boat and then the trees in the background.

My next project for the day was finishing off the evening sky and the sunlight trees on my 24x36 painting. In the shot the masts have this nice glow of orange as they catch the last rays of sun against the dark clouds. Thats why I had to paint the sky in today so it can dry a bit before all the rigging goes up.

My model for today was Lillias, a local girl who we have used many times in sessions at Rick's or Bryce's

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Jim Peterson from Mockingbird Gallery was doing a little spring cleaning and sending artists back some of their works. He wanted to limit the amount of inventory to 15 paintings per person. That being said, I got this one back and in typical artist fashion begin to think something is wrong with it.

So I took out the logs on the shore and decided to add a canoe. The water I'll make more see through as well. This will give me a chance to play around with the logs on the bottom.

And last but not least, my head study for today. This guy was working the potters wheel at Skansen.

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 24

I started a new painting today. Its a late afternoon scene with most of the left side in shadow. There is a last ray of light hitting the tops of the masts and the boat entering to the right.  The sky also had some nice strong colors. So hopefully when done it will look nice and dramatic with that evening glow.

My model for today was another one of girls from the manor house dressed in costume from the 1700

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I took some pictures today of the work from yesterday. The water in this painting I lightened up and added some more striations with the ripples.  Howard/Mandville Gallery will be getting this next week. They actually sold a 24x36 and a 30x40, two paintings that I had down at the May gallery.

On to the laundry painting. I took out the red rag behind her and worked on the wooden slats of the building.  I may need to lighten up the grasses a little more now that I look at it.

And here is today's head study. This girl was part of a small concert they had at Skansen in their 1700's manor house. The four women were dressed up in period costume from that era with the wide hoop dresses. When I get the time I would love to do a large version of all four playing their instruments.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Today's study was another girl from Skansen, who worked in the coffee shop. She looks a little stressed from all the orders!

The crit session went well last night I worked on the boat painting lightening up the water more and then moved on to the Laundry piece, where I worked on the building to her right. I'll take shots of them tomorrow.

Right now I have to get ready for my daughters birthday party, she has a bunch of screaming friends coming over, these events are always a little trying on the nerves.

Richard  Boyer

Thursday

Crit night is at my place tonight, Nick has company at his house.  Some things never seem to change!

This 18x24 painting has seen quite a few changes. Our Orthodontist is doing a trade with me from a childhood memory he had from the beaches of Denmark. So its been going through some drastic re-painting as he remembers more from his childhood 30-40 years ago. Commissions like these I generally don't do since they involve so much work.

Today's study was another character from Skansen, he worked in the 1700's manor house. When I walked in he was sitting down all alone, no tourists visiting him, whittling on a piece of wood. So I started talking with him and told that I was an artist and if I could just take a few photos. After several dozen shots he figured that may have been enough and looked up at me. There was the painting !!!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Here is a shot of what I have done to date. I painted some more on her face today. I was told by some that her face had some hard lines, like she had been working in the fields too long. So I went back in and lightened up her complexion and smoothed out some of the lines, giving her a younger feel.  Now its to the point where I'll set it aside and look at it after a few days.

With today's fun little study I picked this guy because he had some character in his face. He works in the wood shop at Skansen, Stockholm and had the gift of gab with anyone that came into the shop.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

This was todays afternoon study from one of the models at Skansen in Stockholm.
They all have period dress from 1860, so it makes for some good subject matter to paint.

In the morning I worked a little on the other laundry painting, mainly the dress and grasses. I'll take a shot of it some time tomorrow. I still have a little touch up work on the face to do.

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 17

Feeling a little depressed today, maybe the weather or something else…

I worked on the sheets today, trying to get them more translucent. That feeling of sunlight shining through the fabric. Tomorrow I'll work on her dress and the foreground grasses.

My daughter had her birthday yesterday, turning 14. So we all went up to Deer Valley for a day of skiing in the sun. The temperatures were incredibly warm, almost tee-shirt weather and after countless runs up and down my legs are feeling it today.

Here is my study for this afternoon. The model is Lillias, who we photographed up in the Uinta Mountains last summer.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Today's model was Sofie, yes another Swedish relative.  I could have worked more on it, but limiting myself to an hour teaches me to make bold decisions and to paint fast.

Thursday

Yesterday was one of those days, where everything went wrong. The results were in for the Oil Painters of America show and I found out that mine didn't make it in. So that bummed me out a bit. I had countless interruptions in the afternoon and couldn't finish my figure session and then to top it off Karin called from her work telling me that the car wouldn't start and they had no idea what was wrong!

Well we had AAA and gave them a call, turns out the battery was completely dead. The terminals were so corroded that when Karin was trying to get a jump they couldn't make the connection. The AAA driver figured that out and sprayed something on the connections to get the thing started. It was then my job to go out that evening and get a $130 new battery. God I hate cars!!!

Any ways yesterday I took a blank 24x30 canvas and blasted in this start of Charlotte hanging up sheets. Mainly I just wanted to figure out the composition and call in good for the day, but I got into the painting and worked a lot more on her face and shirt.

Which of course gave me a pretty good head start for today. I defined the face some more, adding some  warms and darker areas. Then moved on to the sheets. I want to show the force of the wind and how she seems to be struggling a little to get them up on the line.

I did manage to get my quick figure session in, although not until six in the evening, so it was a little too dark to photograph it. My model was Emile from Sweden.

This was todays study. The woman I shot at Skanses in Stockholm, she was working on a spinning Jenny and seemed keenly focused on the task.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

The water was the main goal today. I worked on the reflections bringing some of the masts down into the water and putting a few ripples in to lead the eye back into the painting. The man on the raft was also defined more and I gave him some tools and a few buckets of paint to work with.

Now I'll set it aside and look at it in a few days.

Here is todays quick study, another one of the Swedish relatives. This one is Felicia with her very blond hair, almost to the point of being white!

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 10

Today I worked on the masts of the boats, starting first with the background ones and then moving progressively forward. As expected I did end of simplifying some of the background buildings so they wouldn't compete with the masts. Tomorrow I'll work some more on the figure and then the water. It is getting close, maybe a few more days.

Here is also todays quick study, another portrait of Charlotte in Sweden.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

This was today small 12x9 study of Charlotte. I used larger brushes for this one, I don't think any were smaller than a half inch across. It forced me to not get so detailed, with that size it ends up being looser in the strokes.

So maybe if I do one of these every day I might, just might get better at painting!

Richard Boyer

Friday

I spent more time working on the background architecture of Copenhagen. I'm trying not to got to detailed since much of it will be covered over with rigging from the masts of the boats. In fact as I get to that rigging I may be blurring out even more of the buildings so they don't compete.  There is a man working on the side of one of them, sanding and scraping off the old paint; so I'll want to really play that part of the painting up, create some interest there.

We had the crit session last night and of course I brought the Provence market scene. They wanted some more definition in the vegetables to the right and some of the umbrellas were also too detailed. I blurred out the trim or fringe on the bottom of them. So now it is done!!!

On to the girl walking along the beach. The blue dress was bothering me just a little too much. There was too many cool colors in the painting, it needed some warms. So why not change the dress to a reddish color. I asked her politely to change clothes and she did ! ( If you believe that, I got some killer real estate in the Florida everglades for you. )  Now the figure pops better against the cooler background and it adds some more vibrant color to the work.

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 3

Here is todays half hour study. One of the relatives in the cold water behind the family summer house in Sweden.

This morning I decided to start another 24x36 boat painting from Copenhagen, seems to be a popular subject matter for me since the last two sold rather fast. This one actually has somebody working on one of the foreground boats. they float a small barge around to the side where they can sand the wood hull from the water.

Richard Boyer