Thursday

I'll let you know if the torching of weeds works or not.  I pointed the flame at the base of the weed but didn't notice much happening besides the obvious blackening of the plant at the base. We will see if it kills the root or not?

Well I couldn't work on the other smaller 24x24's, this painting was calling to be started and nothing was going to get in the way. I covered the 40x40 masonite board a few days ago with a wash of the approximate colors. With it set up I was able to get some more accurate colors down on top and really work on trying to paint the downtown without getting too much detail in there. The danger would be getting drawn into painting every little building which would take forever. I'm finding out with just a minimal amount of brush strokes I can get the illusion of roads and buildings below. I'll be playing up the intense sunlight on the water once I get the land all laid out to the background.  "London 6:15 at 10,000"

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

This is the "somewhat" finished second block-in I started the other day.  I'll need to work on trying to bring up some of the contrast and reflections tomorrow.  Maybe even a few more figures might help.  I'd love to work on this 40x40 I blocked-in the other day of the Thames River.  On the flight over to Sweden at 6:00 in the morning I opened the blinds of the plane window and shot some pictures at 10,000. feet as we were approaching Heathrow airport. The sun was illuminating the river and rooftops of London. I know it will make a really cool painting. This will be one of those paintings I do for myself. As Bob Rose said, "Lets just have some fun!"

The last few days have been rather cool, down to the high seventies or low eighties, in a few days we'll be back up into the neighties again. So I figured this afternoon I'll do a little yard work, pulling weeds is number one on the list. Usually I would do this early in the morning after the sprinkling systems has softened up the ground, but Rick Graham told me of another method the nursery's are recommending. He has a blow-torch that he uses which is hooked up to a propane tank and just fire blasts them to death. Sounds like fun to me and if it works also a lot quicker. I'll break out the small propane torch I use for copper and try it with that…"Death to the Weeds !!!"

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Well I'm back in the US now. Most of the time over in Sweden it was raining with overcast skies. I'm so glad I didn't take the paints over, but a small sketch book instead. Grey skies don't tend to sell too well. I did get down to Stockholm to look at the Zorn photo exhibition. Someone found a bunch of old photos in the basement of the museum in Mora recently and they determined the thousand or so shots of models and places throughout Europe belonged to Zorn. He owned a black and white camera around the turn of the century. One of those modern inventions of the time and was using it quite heavily with his figure paintings. Most artists had no idea he was using them so much as reference.

They didn't have that many photos up from the collection, maybe a hundred or so, but it was enough to see how much he traveled around and to get a little more knowledge about the models he was using.

I did find out when I got back home that my one painting here from San Francisco got into the 16th annual Impressionist Society of America show at Trailside Gallery in the fall.  That will be the first time for me in that show and the first time for me to hang in Trailside Gallery.  I doubt it would sell with them being so Cowboy and Western in their direction of clients.

Just to show that I haven't been lying around I started two block-ins yesterday of Portland. This one I worked on today; now it will need some more lights and work on the tracks in the foreground.  I'll see if I can get it done for the crit session on Thursday with the other one.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well I'm off to Sweden tomorrow with Victor, I have heard its cold and rainy!!

Mockingbird Gallery came through again and sold both of these to the same client in Portland. Seems like these rainy cityscapes are more popular than landscapes.

That being said I finished off this 30x30 for Jim at the gallery the other day and mailed it off, should be arriving today some time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he can sell it while I'm over in Sweden.

Richard Boyer

Monday

I was a week up at our cabin on the Mirror Lake highway. The town of Midway was hosting a plein air event with many fine artists throughout Utah.  So I met up with Robert Duncan and Kimball Warren to do some painting together.

Unfortunately I didn't win any awards, but did manage to sell one which made the trip worth while for me.

This was the first day, the one that sold. It was a hot morning with the temperatures up in the high 90's. My only shade was a cowboy hat, so at the end of the session I felt parched and well done from the sun. Down in Salt Lake City they were breaking records with triple digit temperatures. After baking it was off to lunch with Robert in an air conditioned restaurant.

In the afternoon I went over to the train tracks in Midway and ran into Kimball Warren, who was working on a mountain scene. I decided to try the tracks which was maybe too big of a challenge. I'll need a few more sessions on this one. I soon found out that the track was being used every half hour by the Heber Creeper, a tourist attraction where they go back and forth from Heber to Midway and turn around again. So every half hour I had to pick up the easel and move out of the way and wait for the conductor to switch the rail lines for the engine. We got to know each other a bit as he would look at my progress. 

Kimball took a few shots and laughed as the train pushed me out of the way.

The Heber Creeper literally does creep along at about three miles an hour here, so there never was any real danger.

Sunday morning I was back on the Provo river doing another 12x16 fly fisherman. Robert Duncan met up with me here as well. This guy seemed very focused on his casting and didn't really mind two artists painting him.

The next morning I wanted to try more of an aerial shot from the road to Kamas, here it climbs up from Heber Valley to get around the Jordonelle reservoir. I felt the view was great for a painting; but was a little rushed with the time and the sun coming around, so it will need more work later on.

Most likely it will have to wait until I get back from Sweden. Victor and I are flying out on Thursday morning.

Richard Boyer