Monday

Back to the grind as they say. We had a great weekend up at Nick's brothers cabin in Star Valley, by Afton about three hours north of Salt Lake City on the way to Jackson, Wyoming.  Six artists in all Bryce Liston, Robert Duncan, Gregory Stocks, Nick and Atom Rees and of course myself painted.

Friday morning we set up in a canyon just a few miles south where they had a lot of cows, all curious to check us out as we worked. All the works here are as they say straight out of the box, as much as I could accomplish in the session I was standing there on location. Now maybe I'll work some more on a few to fix them up a little bit.

This was my morning painting a 10x20 and there were horses down by the stream edge that I still need to add into the painting. they moved on before I could get to them.

After lunch I walked the road a bit from the cabin and worked on this view looking down to the town of Afton. Nick was with me doing his version.

Later on in the day I tried the same view with a horizontal panel. my goal was to capture the evening glow on the mountains across the valley. This piece will need some more work since we (Bryce Liston and I ) had to wait and wait for the sun to get behind the mountain we were on in order for the shadows in front. The mountains across the way did start to glow, but then the light was too dark to paint in.

On day two we drove north into another not so impressive canyon. I started this small 10x16 but was caught off guard by the changing light as the clouds rolled in. This seems to be the complaint from everyone there.

We went back for lunch and all stuck around the cabin to find subject matter. the clouds were building up a little then and we figured painting something closer would be better. I chose the front porch and painted the light in as the break in the clouds came by.

With the evening approaching I decided on one more of some pine trees at the end of the driveway. Robert was at the base of them painting a view into the forest. This piece I spent about an hour on just trying to get an impressionistic view.

Our last day on Sunday we went back up north to hit some of the old barns and fields. I settled on this view of a yellow tree behind a few broken down structures.  This one I like a lot and feel that I don't really need to do too much more on it.  We went back for lunch, packed up and drove back to Salt Lake. It was a good trip and I would like to do it more often.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

This painting I've been working on the past couple of days. Its a 22x20 in size and most likely needs something more, but I just can't think about what after spending the last few days on it. I'll need to set it aside and see; hopefully something will pop out at me.

Tomorrow I'll be driving up to a cabin outside of Afton, Wyoming. Nick's brother has a place he build in the mountains and said we could us it to paint from.  Robert Duncan, Bryce Liston and possibly Rick Graham might be joining us for three days of plein air painting in the countryside up there. It should be a fun trip to get out with those guys. I always learn something from painting on location.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Back from Kansas and we had a really good time out there visiting my sister, parents and other family members. I thought it would be hot and muggy, but actually it was a little cooler than Salt Lake City. the humidity picked up the last day and I could see where that might drive you crazy. We did a lot of ATV driving around on the empty fields. Their neighbor owns 76 acres and they just finish bailing all the hay which they just left all around.  It really added to the scenery and would be worthy of painting. I kept thinking of Monet and his haystack paintings. As for the ATV driving, my daughter loved tearing around the haystacks. She even tried her luck at stick-shifting my sisters jeep out on the open grass. Hopefully the farmer won't mind all the skid marks left behind.

After showing this image to the Howard/Mandville Gallery, they were not too impressed with the forklift, they saw it with the city road crew workers as well and felt it would be a hard sale.  So I took everything out and put in a bus, now everyone is happier.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

So this painting I had the road workers in and changed them out yesterday for a more nondiscript padestrian view.

Now I think the viewer shouldn't be bothered with workers on the road. The forklift I liked, so that will stay, it adds a nice element to the lighter background.

Richard Boyer

Monday

I went back into this one and added a figure down on the right side. It needed something down there, so the red umbrella helps. I also played up some of the reflections on the left side as well.

The 24x28 I also finished up with the road and tracks, playing around a little with the reflections. I used a pallet knife with a lot of the light areas to bring up the texture some more.. I kept the painting in a yellow light to try and harmonize the piece.

This 24x24 has gone through some changes. Originally I thought the forklift on the left side would be enough to carry the painting, or to balance off the painting, but it wasn't. It needed something more, so I figured a few workers in there would help, maybe to balance off the painting. 

After thinking about it, who would buy a painting of city road workers? So I'm changing them out, asking them to clean up the mess and exit the painting. I'll go for some people walking along a wider sidewalk on the left; trying to keep it all dark and loose so they won't be too defined.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I worked some more on the smaller 24x24; adding lights to the left side and bringing them down into the bottom of the painting. Its still going to need some more work on the reflections, I put them in rather fast to get an idea of how it will look.  The composition would improve more with the cafe lights more defined on the left, maybe bringing them up a little higher.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

I needed break from the other San Francisco piece, so I put that aside and started this 24x24 of Portland.  I liked the stormy sky in this one with the lights of the train coming down the road. I'll need some cafe lights either right or left of the road, so those will come into the next painting session.  The other painting I was getting tired of, things were not working the way I wanted them to with the reflections. That told me the best plan was to set it aside for a few days and look at it agin with a fresh eye. Who knows maybe working on this one will give me ideas for the other?

Yesterday they had the fifth day on the Tour of Utah bike race. This race is gaining in popularity with more and more countries entering in the event, similar to the Tour de France. This stretch was around the Avenues, where we live. All the roads were closed from 4:30 - 7:00 in and out of the Avenues so they could race around us in a big loop. The course was set up with some steap hill climbs and fast downhills. Seven times around was equal to 55 miles and so far its Canada in first. 

Today is the big race from Park City up over Guardsman's pass at 10,000. feet then down big Cottonwood Canyon and up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The course is 110 miles with a total elevation gain of 13,000 feet: not for the faint of heart.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

I finished off the large 40x40 painting; well at least until the critique session tonight. I might get some more input on a few things to change. I do like the angle of being at 10,000. feet with the morning light.  I was just thinking how lucky I was to get that shot, normally 9 times out of 10, London would be overcast or covered over in smog. I would love to do this to a few more well known cities, but the logistic would be next to impossible with the weather, right angle to the light and time of day. Maybe if I had my own helicopter?!

Next on the list was this piece. I painted in some of the buildings and worked on the road with tracks down the middle. Its going to need a few more sessions on it to bring it to life, but when done it should look real good with the reflections.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I got a bit of a surprise call from Jim at Mockingbird Gallery, he needed two 12x12's of the town of Bend for the city council. And they had to be out the door by today.  So I blocked this on in on Monday from Wall Street with the evening light.

The second one from yesterday is from the old Tower theater in Bend.  So I guess the city council will decide which one they want and the other will go to one of his clients maybe ?! I never really know what it going on there???

I also started a block-in of San Francisco for the Howard/Mandville Gallery, they wanted to try some of my cityscapes after looking at Mockingbird Gallery's website.  The size will be 24x38 and I'm going to try and capture the reflected lights from the buildings in the road and rail lines.

Richard Boyer

Sunday

Here is the other 24x24 Portland painting; the one that took so long to finish off. The figure I must have painted six times over and over again; each time bigger or smaller in different positions on the painting. Maybe I'll call it done now.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

After the crit session it was suggested I add more interest to the left side. With the road being so dark it left an empty spot there. So I played up the light of the shop on the left and reflected that down into the area. I also blurred out the tracks a little so the eye wouldn't race down so fast. Now it looks better. I sent an image of it to Jim Peterson of the Mockingbird Gallery and he really likes it. The other 24x24 I'm still working on.  I did add a figure on the left side and painted her over about five times and still not 100% satisfied with it yet.

Sometimes paintings can really slow up on you as the problems arise.

Richard Boyer