Tuesday

Well we have about 18 inches of fresh snow on the ground here at my house and a lot of shoveling to go with it.

Going back to this painting I re-worked the sky with more intense color and defined the buildings some more.

I worked my way along in the background with the buildings and added the clock tower to the left. In reality one would not see that from this location. the tower would be more off to the left.

next I defined the building on the right, or started to at least, there is a lot of architecture there to work on and I'm still not sure how much of it I want to elaborate on.

Most of the afternoon was spent on this building getting all the parts blocked in.

The last part today was to cover the water in the foreground. It will need a lot of work with the reflections, which I can start tomorrow. Larger paintings like this always seem to take a while to get done since the little areas that become a single brush stroke on the smaller works now become larger areas that need more definition.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I'm driving to Nevada today to get a Christmas tree. Last week I put in the permit for $4 near Elko. So this afternoon I'll drive to Wendover and stay with an old college friend and tomorrow we will both drive an hour and a half south out in the middle of nowhere to cut down a few trees.  It should be a good adventure.

I decided to try a night painting from Amsterdam, just to try something different from the usual rain soaked streets.

So the size is 34x52 and as you can see the composition was the first thing to be layer in. It will be a view looking down the canal with a bridge crossing and the town lit up behind.

Here I started to block in the sky with color and the buildings to the right with the orange light of evening. for me its much easier to work with larger shapes of color instead of the drawing of forms. Blocking in masses like this will tell me very quickly if the painting is moving along in the right direction or not.

Next the water is filled in with a large brush. So now the canvas is covered over with the approximate color and value that I want for the finished product. From here I can tweak the composition and adjust areas where I want the focus of interest.

This last shot I defined more of the building to the right. At this point I want the oil paint to set up a bit, or else when I put down further strokes the brush will just be removing some of my iniscial block-in color.

More to come next week

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Another snow storm approaching, just what we need. the ski resorts are getting a little thin with rocks still showing.

I did a series of smaller paintings for the Mockingbird Gallery. Jim, the owner was talking about smaller pieces for the Christmas rush. Now I've never experienced the Black Friday frenzy and I seriously doubt anything like that would happen in a gallery.  Most people in my case don't buy the paintings as Stocking stuffers before the holidays.  But I figured maybe a group of little pieces wouldn't hurt, it might attract the people who ordinarily wouldn't buy a painting because of the price.

The first one was a 16x12 of Portland, based on a larger one I did a while back.

This 12x16 was done from a very blurry shot I took after the camera was out in the rain for a bit.  If you get drops of water on the lens it really diffracts the light.

Here I did a smaller 9x12 from Bend, Oregon. Originally I did this during the day while I was at the gallery. Jim couldn't sell it so he returned it to me and I painted over the top and changed it into night.

This 9x12 is looking back at the Gallery in Bend

A while back I did a large 40x40 of this same subject matter and decided it would make a good smaller 12x9

The last 9x12 was of Portland again with a figure walking home in the rain

All of these should be arriving in the Mockingbird Gallery some time today.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I finished off the 28x38 painting for the May Gallery, just waiting on the frame to be made. I hope I captured that wet feeling in the road.  That feeling of opening up the umbrella. The big question is going to be if this stuff will sell down in Scottsdale; rainy Oregon might be a different picture, they are use to it there and like the subject matter. Down in sunny Arizona they may want to get away from that all.

This next one, also for the May Gallery is a 30x30 I did of Portland. I'm hoping the buyer won't hang up too much on the location but rather the rainy feel of the cityscape. With these two they have six night paintings, ready for whenever their season starts up.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Mockingbird Gallery came through again and sold this little 30x28 I did in the Spring. The large painting, the 40x40 of Portland should be arriving today at the gallery.

I just remembered I never put the finished image of the painting up on the blog, well here it is.  I kept it a late afternoon scene with plenty of reflections in the road from the rain. It is fairly similar to the last 40x40 I did but a different street with new buildings. I called it 6th Ave and Taylor from the exact location in the city.  Jim said he has a client who is interested in this one already, so I'm keeping the fingers crossed.

Richard Boyer

Monday

Well Thanksgiving came and went. we had some good friends over and as usual too much food to eat. We still have turkey leftovers. I figured it would be best to work some of it off so my daughter and I went skiing yesterday up at Alta, first time this season and I seem to be out of shape. It was cold up there, 12 degrees with low visibility from the clouds and to make it worse that had the snow making machines going full force, blowing wet mist across the slopes. This made it even colder when you ran through it.

I started a bunch of smaller paintings for Mockingbird Gallery since Christmas is coming up, he put in a request for some little pieces. I'll show some pictures of those in the next few days. Today I was back on this larger painting, working on the lights in the background. I have the wires in the air above the tracks to get in tomorrow;  that should help the composition more.

This 30x30 Jim sold over the holidays at the Mockingbird Gallery..he seems to be moving along with the work at a good pace; that's why he wants the smaller pieces ASAP.  If I can get all six done this week I'll send them off an the end of next week.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I started a 28x38 today for the May Gallery, a view of downtown San Francisco at night. Standing at the edge of the road there is a nice lead-in with the grey curb, ending with the lights of on coming traffic. What I need to keep in mind is be loose with the handling of the paint and to just work on the values and architecture in the beginning. I'll get some pallet knife work on the road since it takes up a lot of real estate, then once it dries come back over the top for the rail lines of the trolley. there are some guide lines above the tracks that I want to incorporate into the composition. On the left side I'll put some people with umbrellas so the eye has something to follow along with.

I think this one will end up being really nice. lets see if I can get it done before Thanksgiving.

Southam Gallery had their show last night and actually sold three works of mine. The client did go for the 24x30 painting I did of the beach, a 24x24 cityscape sold and small 12x16 plein air boat painting from Sweden sold.  Not bad and a welcome relief from their summer dry spell. It will help since I need to order a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5, its an older version that will work on my computer. With the limited editions I need to adjust the colors of the printer sometimes and they suggest Photo shop is the best for that.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Well the client has the painting on approval, thats to say she wants to hang it in her home and see how it looks and then decide.

My new website is finally done. Dealing with "Angelfire" and the domain name became a nightmare for me, so I blew them off and got a new domain name with "Squarespace", "richardboyerart.net"

Now I'm able to up-date it with ease and also put limited edition canvases on it for sale.

http://www.richardboyerart.net

Under the store link you can see the new line of products.

Ferry Boats of Stockholm 11x14 is only $125.

The edition is limited to 275 only

Port to Port 11x14 $125

and then there is a line of cityscapes

Rainy Evening 24x38  $390.

Bus Stop  24x24  $300

So, please check it out and feel free to order some limited edition giclees, each signed and numbered by the artist !

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I finished off and delivered the beach painting to Southam Gallery. So now we wait and see what the client will say about it. They are having a show over the weekend here, actually both Friday and Saturday they will be staying open in the evening.. What I am hoping is that they can sell that large Aspen tree painting I did a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I started this 30x30 for the May Gallery, another night view of Portland. Its going to need more work done on it, but at least its far enough along to show some friends at the crit session tonight and get some feed-back. I think more color might be in order first off and then some thick pallet knife work on the foreground road.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I had to switch paintings over to this piece. Southam gallery has a client who is interested in a beach scene with a red umbrella, a 24x30 to fit in a certain spot in the home. The gallery is having a show this Friday so I need to get it done by then.

As for the events that happened last night
My heart goes out to people of Paris, such a cowardly act by terrorists will never accomplish anything. In fact it will unite the French stronger against them!

vive le français !!!
Montrez votre force contre ces terroristes.

Richard Boyer

Monday

I started this 30x30 a few days ago and never got around to posting it, just got too busy I guess. Fall has arrived and the weather is turning colder, so there was a lot of last minute yard work that had to be done.  This painting I'll be sending off to Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery since he seems to be having the best luck at selling them. I sent him an image of it and he seems happy with the painting;  which is always a good thing when the gallery is behind the work.

I did get into a new gallery in Carmel, California; New Masters Gallery which has been around for close to 40 years.  About a week ago I sent them a CD with my cityscapes and sure enough they left a message on the phone that they were interested and wanted to represent my work. Its seems they want all the cityscapes I have in my studio, about eight pieces in all.  I've ordered the frames and they should be ready on Wednesday, then I can get them all boxed up and ready to go.  I'm excited to see if the market there will be as successful as Bend, Oregon. I could really use another good outlet for the new paintings.

This morning I started another 40x40. Mockingbird Gallery told me they have a client interested in one of the sold paintings I did, so something similar would be nice.

I'll be standing in the middle of the road with a purple light from the sky. Its basically the old one point perspective again.

The traffic is moving away from me in this one also. So instead of headlights from the cars;, I'll have red tail lights and traffic signals I can play up with color. The first couple of overhead traffic lights I'll have green. that will be more harmonies with the blue and purple sky. Farther down the lights will be red closer to the car tail lights. Now I will most likely be changing things around as I go on this.

Richard Boyer

Monday

This morning I worked on the Portland painting again. Its the Willamette River that flows through town just before it meets the Columbia River.  I had at one point too much light on the bridge, so that I toned it down and put a light glow of yellow over the cars. then I was able to reflect it down into the water. It still might need some more here and there, but I'll have to think on it a bit.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

Yes I'm ready for Halloween. On Wednesday we carves the pumpkins with some friends. We had a nice dinner and wine before the creative project got started. Then the table was covered with pumpkin guts as the carving got under way.

At the end we came up with some scary results!!  

This morning I changed the painting around that I got back from Jim at Mockingbird Gallery. The building was destroyed and a tree planted in its place.  Now the problem was once I removed the building I had to change a bunch of other thinks. Suddenly the sky was too empty, or rather there was just too much sky so the eye was traveling up there away from the center of focus, the road and cars.

 The tree I had to break up a bit and carry it over the top a little so the viewer wouldn't just race up a diagonal line off the upper left corner of the painting.  I added a light to that upper left side to bring a little yellow into the dark area. The sky was re-worked as well to add more definition to the clouds. Now I sent off an image to Jim, and he will forward it to the client….. we'll see what he says.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well Jim at Mockingbird found a buyer for this big 40x40 I did, but I guess he knows Portland and wants the artists mistake corrected. I was interested in capturing a certain kind of light quality in the painting and felt it needed a strong vertical on the left side. So I made up a building, a rather large building and have now been busted…it doesn't exist. Okay, okay I learned my lesson, never make stuff up in a city-scape…somebody will call me on it every time. I was originally thinking of sending it to Scottsdale where the buyer wouldn't really know the city of Portland, just be interested in the light quality.

Now Jim is mailing me back the painting to correct the problem. I need to paint the tall building out and figure some other solution, maybe a tree branch or something!  I just found it funny that I was caught in the act of making up a building..

Yesterday I figured I should also start a new 40x40 for his gallery since he sold this one so fast. This is a view of the river flowing through Portland with city traffic on the bridge. I want to have it really glowing on the bridge and bring some of it down into the water.

Today I just worked on bringing the colors into the piece, there is a nice sense of purple in the sky that I want to capture. The water was too wet with paint to really work on any detail, I guess I went too thick with the paint yesterday, so I'll have to wait a few days for it to set up. I'm excited about this view I really think it will turn out good.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

here is a better shot of the painting, done in the morning light on my porch.  I added a few more strokes of purple in the foreground and also extended the light more to the left side of the painting.  Over the next several days I have a feeling I'll be doing still more touch-ups to this piece; as I learn what would make a boring underpass exciting to the viewer?!

Southam Gallery is having an Aspen show sometime in November and so I did this little 18x12 a few days ago and finished it off today. I used a lot of thick paint strokes on the trees and leaves, which turned out to be fun. This is quite a deviation from the cityscapes I have been working on lately.

Richard Boyer

Friday

I started a little more gritty painting yesterday; The 8th South bridge under I-15.  Its a subject I wanted to try for a while. And the trick is to keep it exciting with the paint quality, most underpasses are not the most attractive subjects to paint. So I need to keep it abstract in a way.

We had the crit session last night and they suggested more color in places. So this morning I lightened up the cement in the foreground and added the train lights, along with a few more cars and people. With the addition of that there seems to be more to look at under the bridge.  Now I need to photograph this in a better light, instead of in the studio; but that will have to wait until the morning. I find the light is a little softer then than the strong afternoon light for copy work.

Richard Boyer

Monday

Over the Fall Break weekend we went camping down in southern Utah, the Burr trail Road to be exact, about 9 miles downhill from Boulder, Utah. The first night I was down there with my daughter and the skies were filled with stars; with a good pair of binoculars we were able to see the Andromeda Galaxy. The next day some more family members came with friends and the weather slowly turned for the worst. Rain storms were on the schedule for the weekend.

We hiked to Calf Creek Falls, six miles round trip of heavy rain and mud filled paths. Here is a picture of the lower falls. Under clear skies it would be worthy of a painting and some day I will have to return to get that done. The upper falls I have heard is even nicer.

This was our camp site…no comment !!!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I took a break from the large Aspen painting. yesterday I added some pallet knife work to the trees and it seemed to help, but for now I need to set it aside and look at it later.

I went back into this 40x40 and added some cross walks in the lower part. With the horizontal lines there your eye doesn't race down the road, it stops to linger a bit, kind of like a speed bump!

If you remember I did a smaller version of this subject matter a while back, a 16x12 and thought it would make a nice larger painting. So this morning I block-in this 30x30 and tried to keep the light in more of a yellow hue.  I'll try to shoot for that end of day feeling.

Richard Boyer

Teusday

I'm still waiting on Lycos to switch over my domain name to my new website, they seem to be the most unprofessional company out there, with obviously the lowest customer service rating in history.

Well getting back to business, Mockingbird Gallery sold this large 40x40 painting today of Portland. They have had it for most of the summer, most likely because of its size. A painting this big commands a rather large wall to hang in on, and thats what most people don't have.

Southam gallery called me and wanted me to try an Aspen painting. They keep going up to Park City to look in the galleries up there and see what's selling. A few of their artists up in Park City just paint Aspen trees all the time and seem to be doing a good job at selling lots of them. So Linda got the idea to call all her artists and have them work on Aspen tree paintings for a show.

So on Saturday I blocked in this large 36x48 piece of Aspen trees in Fall color

This morning I worked more on the trees and yellows of the leaves. I'll let it set up over night and work some more on it tomorrow. Then I can bring up some more colors in certain areas. After looking at it I know I can get more texture in the trees, maybe use a pallet knife to get some thick paint on them

Richard Boyer