Thursday

Now I have the canals in place. Took a little time with the layout to make sure they were somewhat accurate. I didn't want to copy too much since one could very easy become obsessed with it. Not to mention how long it would take. The idea was to be accurate enough so people could realize what city it is without too much detail. The canals I will brighten up later on towards the end of the painting; that will help with the movement throughout the work.

Sunday I'll be flying out to Portland, Oregon for a photo shoot of the city in rain. Jim Peterson from the Mockingbird Gallery will be driving there to meet me and as he put it we will be forced to try out all the local beers at the pubs.  I'm not sure how exciting he will find it to follow me around while I shoot, but actually as the gallery owner he might know better what people are looking for in a panting. Nothing like someone in the know, telling you what some of his clients are looking for!

It will be fun just to spend some time there to play around

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Well I couldn't wait and decided to start one of the 40x40's. The other city painting can wait a bit, its nice to have several paintings in the works that way i don't get too bored with one of them. 

This is just the start where I figure out the composition; The main river is down in front: actually this would have been the open sea back some 400 years ago; since then the dutch have been filling it in to reclaim land. I hinted at the canals just above the main waterway.

I then blasted in the background colors of the city, land and sky, keeping everything as loose as I could.

With a few darks I wanted to put those in next to establish my range of values. I now have my darkest dark at the bottom and lightest light in the upper right corner.

Next I defined the lakes in the background and some of the blues.

This morning I had fun and put in the city in the lower foreground. There I mainly looked for the broad shapes and colors of the ground below. The value was the same but there was a difference in color between the bluish trees and the warmer buildings. With the addition of some highlights on the roof tops and what ever else was reflecting light the city now comes together better. Its very loose and almost abstract but from a distance it all reads as the city below. It's amazing how a few brush strokes with fool the eye of a rooftop or roadway.  Tomorrow I'll work on the canals of the old town.

Richard Boyer

Friday

I worked a little more on this 30x30. The dark clouds were lowered down more and I introduced some more purples in there as well. The trees were also a little too round so I broke those up and worked some on the cars; especially the black one in front. So now I get to set it aside and live with it for a few days to see if anything more jumps out at me.

I got a lot done on this one yesterday. The left side and background are close to done. Now its just that right side I need to figure out what to do with. It will need some figures there and some good reflections in the road. A few more days and I should have it done.

I chatted with the New Masters Gallery yesterday in Carmel and they want to try a bunch of those aerial 40x40's. They told me they could frame them up locally so I wouldn't have to worry about making them myself; which generally took more time to do than the painting itself.  This weekend I'll head to the home depot for the masonite and get them all ready to go for next week.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Here is a 30x30 I've been working on for Mockingbird gallery. Excuse the quality of the photo, its raining outside so I can't really get a better shot of it. I am trying to keep it fairly monochromatic in the green range and it probably needs a little bit more added to it, but for now I'll set it aside and work on something different.

So this afternoon under dark skies I blocked in this 36x36 of Portland.  There is a nice window lit building in the background I can play with to add some excitement. So I'll try to take shots of it more in progression. I feel like I need to get some back log of works here for the Mockingbird Gallery.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I finished off the Shackleton painting and sent off the image to the American Society of Marine painters show. We'll see if it gets in or not, then I'll need to get it framed up and sent back east..

I've had a slight rash of sales happen the last few days. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it might pick up. 

New Masters Gallery in Carmel sold this 30x30 of San Francisco. I called this the canyon light of the city. With the buildings blocking out the noonday light it reminded me of some of the river canyons I've floated down.

And then the same gallery said they sold this large 40x40. They had a problem with UPS breaking the frame I made for it, so they are waiting on them to make a claim.  That seems so typical for UPS, I gave up years ago using them for that very reason, too many damaged boxes. I found Fedex to be far superior. 

Then last but not least Jim Peterson from Mockingbird Gallery sold this 30x30 of Portland last night. So once I get paid for these I should be happy.

Richard Boyer

Sunday

I went skiing yesterday up at Deer Valley and it was warm, most likely up in the 60's. My face feels the sunburn. At the end of the day it was like skiing through mashed potatoes. Yup its melting fast in these warm spring days.

Well today I took it easy and worked on my Shackleton painting. The boat I did make a little bigger then the last block-in, some how it wasn't looking right in size against the ice blocks. The paint was dry enough for me to come over the top with some richer colors which I put up in the sky. The blocks of ice I also added some warmer oranges to contrast the purples of the background. It still needs another day on it, the boat needs more color in it and maybe a stronger sense of light. But it does look like I will make that deadline.

Richard Boyer

Friday

Its been a while, my daughter and I were over in Sweden visiting our son working at a Ski resort in Vemdalen, It was spring break so we took off ten days. for me this was one of the shortest times I've spent in Europe. It seems as soon as you get over the jet lag your back on the plane again.

Victor was staying in a nice cottage almost walking distance from the resort. Guests would put on their skis and head on down the hill. This view is out the front door. now his job wasn't the most exciting thing to do, they had to clean rental units everyday for a company. He needed the job to earn some money and one of the perks was a free seasons pass to the local ski resorts. They also collected a lot of gear from guests just leaving stuff behind. 

Our first day of skiing was quite cloudy at the resort called Vemdalan, but it was fun to try a new place that evening I made lasagna for them.

The next day the weather cleared up and we tried a new resort called Bjornrika, about twenty minutes farther down the road.  This mountain was quite a bit higher and a lot more fun to ski. The hill was more set up for racing which was a lot of fun.

After several days we all drove back to Osthammar to stay with Victors Grandmother, at 87 she was glad to have the company. Sweden was a good month behind Salt Lake City with the arrival of spring. There many of the lakes and coastline were still covered, or had ice remaining. the trees were all grey from winter still.

Well all good things have to come to an end and reality hits you again. I found out as a signature member of the American Society of Marine painters I am required to submit a painting to their annual show. The deadline is next weekend!  So I started a painting, 22x34 of Shackleton's boat the "Endeavor"  I pulled some old black and white images off the internet of his boat before it went under the ice. Now I am also inspired by a German artist, Casper David Friedrich ( 1774 - 1840 ) who did a similar piece of a shipwreck with large ice blocks in the arctic.  I've kept it in my own composition but used similar colors that he used. His shipwreck was reduced to a few pieces of crushed wood, where mine is more intact.

The painting is really quite wet now so it will need to set up a few days. then I can hit it again with richer colors and it should really start to sing. Or so I hope!

Richard Boyer