Wednesday

I finished off the other 20x20 Portland painting for Mockingbird Gallery. The 5th Avenue line coming down the track. Now I made up a bit and added the lights on the left side, before it was actually quite dark so it needed some life added to it. This work I mailed off yesterday….

along with the other 20x20 here. Lets hope Jim's client in interested in one of them.

This other 30x30 I also started a few days ago for Mockingbird Gallery, once again Portland in the rain and I'm improvising on  the figures in the rain; taking them from another picture.  I really want to play up the wet reflections on the right side as it silhouettes the girls, this I can attach with a pallet knife and have some fun with.

Next week it will be nice to head up to the cabin for the Midway plein air painting event. the temperatures here in Salt Lake City are suppose to get over 100.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I decided to add a lot more light to this piece. After looking at it for some days now I realized the figures seemed a little small and insignificant. So the fix was to make them larger and surround them in light from the windows behind.  In fact most of the lights I really punched up with some pallet knife.  Now it seems to have a nicer feel to it.

Next weekend I'll be heading up to Midway, Utah for their plein air event. The Midway Art Association is holding their 10th Annual Plein Air Paradise where artists get together and paint a few works for the show July 1-4th. For me it will be fun to get out and meet some more artists and just to paint the great sneery up there. I'm partial to the Provo river with all the fly-fishermen, so most likely I'll be hanging out there.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well I changed a few things around on this painting from yesterday. I felt like the cars made a block in the middle, both coming at the viewer with the parked Chrysler on the right it formed a wall. So I got rid of the left one and opened it up to the sidewalk with figures walking along in front of the lights. There is probably still some more to do on ti, but I feel better about the composition now.  The right side might need a little more light to balance it better, but that I'll wait on for a day or two.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I worked on one of the Portland paintings today. It will need some more later on but right now I'm a little burnt out; so its time to put it aside and leave it for a few days.  Maybe its just the heat here, this week we are up in the 90's. I liked it better when we had all the rain. Those afternoon monsoon storms really helped to cool the place down.

Tomorrow I'll work on the other 20x20 I blocked - in

Richard Boyer

Friday

Jim at Mockingbird sold another smaller 20x20 night painting for me and called about getting some more. So yesterday I did the trip to Utrecht Art supply and picked up some stretcher bars. I figured lets do them in linen since the masonite ends up being so heavy and costs more on the shipping end of it. This morning I stretched two up and blocked them in.

This is the second view looking down 5th avenue in Portland.  I'll let them dry a day or so and see if I can get them finished off in a single painting session for each.

This afternoon I have my son and daughter flying over to Sweden for the summer. So I'm a little sad to see them off. They will be gone for the next two months.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

A while back I did two 30x30 block-ins from Salt lake City, this one looking down South Temple Street I finished off today. Well as it usually goes, it may just need a few days to the side so I can think about it. I'm sure there will be some small changes to it later on.  I did make the road wet so I could get some reflections down into it; without that the foreground looked a little too grey and dark.

Richard Boyer

Monday

I started another 14x12 city painting on Saturday and somehow was just not happy with it, no matter what I added. You'll notice the two figures on the left crossing the street didn't seem to fit in and I couldn't figure out why. So I put it aside for a day and hit it again this morning.

Thats when I realized it didn't have a good composition, just a little too much everywhere I thought. So I moved the figures over to the right side where the taller building was and punched up the lights behind them so they would stand out more. Now it seems to work better. There is more on the right side with a stronger vertical. The street light on the left gives a better counter balance to the painting. The sky I also lightened up more so the eye moves around the painting better. And for those star gazers, that's Venus and Mercury in the sky.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I did end up finishing this piece after a couple of sessions fixing the tracks on the hill. I added a few figures to the right and the cross walk to help with the compotition. Now there is a little more to look at in the shadows

yesterday I worked on a night scene from downtown Salt Lake City. Authentique Gallery put in a request for some smaller cityscapes, so I'll do a few of these to go along with the smaller Grand Canyon paintings..

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I worked a little more on this 10x20 from the Grand Canyon, adding more oranges to the foreground cliffs and played around with the water as well. It's just another on of those lazy days on the river.

The next here I ended up working two days on. I had some problems with the water. At first I had a lot of blues in it, reflections from the sky, but it was looking too busy so I removed it all and left it a simple greenish color. As they say, simple is better for a painting. So now I'm happier with it.

I had some good news from Jim at Mockingbird Gallery, he sold these two Portland paintings over the weekend to somebody in Bend, Oregon. Finally some of these Cityscapes are starting to sell and that is really nice to see. the pressure is on now to create some more for him.

6th Ave & Main 30x30 

5th Ave & Morrison 20x20

Richard Boyer

Monday

I worked on one of the 10x18's this morning. It will need so more work later on, but its a good start. These studies are helpful for the painting process, they force me to put all the brush strokes down right the first time. Since it is done in one session I don't have time to go back and pick at parts of it. It forces me to really look at the subject matter and evaluate the right color and value.

Richard Boyer