Richard Boyer - What's on the Easel

Thursday

2012-01-26T14:20:00.002-07:00

I started another winter scene from back East; Joseph from the May Gallery had a client about a month ago that was interested in a snow painting for their home. So I agreed to see what I could do about it, being an artist, and also able to paint winter snow scenes with the brush. I figured there was a niche I could fill here!!!

So I found this gorgeous Victorian House from the area where my parents live and decided it would make a good subject matter, especially if I can get some warm lights glowing from the windows - “Thomas Kinkade, watch out!”

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2012-01-25T14:39:00.006-07:00

I love attacking older works that I have in the studio. These two I changed around quite a bit and had some fun adding a little of this and that. They were at a gallery for a while with no luck, so like most artists you look at it with a fresh eye and see just what it is that the piece could use.

Here is the original

And then with the added changes!

Here is the next original

And with a few changes added also.

Richard

Tuesday

2012-01-24T13:08:00.002-07:00

We got another small snow front moving through last night adding to the total!

This is today’s project; it’s an older piece that I have been re-working. Mainly changing out a few figures for new ones and re-arranging the tables here and there. All of this would naturally be soooooo much easier with Photoshop!!! But alas, I only have the brush, so it may take a few days to get it all changed around the way I want it. I’ll put it off to the side now to look at it in a few days with a fresh eye.

And as Debbie suggested I got rid of the red flag above the older man walking up the stairs, a very quick fix!

Richard Boyer

Monday, Jan 23

2012-01-23T15:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was one of those picture perfect skiing days. After Saturdays storm the mountains received over two feet of fluffy white snow and everybody was up to enjoy it on a sunny Sunday. The only problem being the traffic; Little Cottonwood was closed for much of the day due to an avalanche that closed off the road. They finally dug the snow out of the way by two in the afternoon. When that happens the skiers all default to the other neighboring canyon, the neighboring canyon where we have passes to. The cars were parked for miles down the road and some of the lift lines were just as long; but we finally found a spot and spent the day up there skiing powder and enjoying the sun.

Today I worked a little more on this piece adding an older man walking up the stairs.

Friday

2012-01-20T16:33:00.001-07:00

So after looking at it for a few days I figured it needed a figure. I decided to put Sofia in it from a photo shoot this past summer. It does seem to help and adds some interest to the subject. So once again I’ll put it aside in the studio and see if any new ideas come to mind after a few days

You are welcome to throw rocks at me if I end up put a cute kitty cat in there with big eyes!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2012-01-18T15:44:00.002-07:00

Well I changed a few things around in the painting, mainly the orange stone wall in the background. After finishing off a few other areas I noticed it needed to be toned down in intensity. It’s still not 100% finished, so I’ll let it sit in the studio for a while and see what it needs in a few days.

It would appear that winter has finally arrived here in Salt Lake City; for the next week it’s forecasted as rain and snow. “White snow” that stuff we so desperately need at all the ski resorts. It might also mean that Mountain Dell could open up for some track skiing. Yesterday I was driving all over the place in Park City to drop the kids off at different locations for training; there at least the snow is just barely covering the grass. Mountain Dell is so much closer to those of us living in the valley and at least there they can fit the entire TUNA organization in one place.

Richard

Monday, Jan 16

2012-01-16T17:17:00.002-07:00

I started another 40x30 piece here for the May Gallery. A few summers ago when we were in Provence, in the town of Bonnieux I passed this small alley on the way up to the top of the village. The noon-day sun was high over head and the light was just illuminating the stone walkway in front of the wall. There are some flowers in the pots to the right that will really add some color.

This was blocked in on Saturday

And then today’s work.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2012-01-13T12:51:00.002-07:00

The crit session went well last night. Mysteriously with one of the crit members absent, no wine glasses were broken. My fingers were still thawing out from our late afternoon skate ski workout in Millcreek Canyon. The Utah Nordic Alliance was meeting there for their 4:30 Thursday training session and the temperature gauge in the car was reading 16 degrees. Sunlight basically never reaches this canyon in winter time; so our ski up the icy snow was cold on the fingers. Halfway up they were feeling like ice blocks.

From the notes I worked on two older pieces today. This first one just needed a bit more light on the heads and a small flower pot in the girl’s hand. I also submitted it to the Raymar on-line art competition, so we shall see how it does?

This next piece is an Amsterdam work I did several years back. Maybe back when I was quite naïve, as the song goes! But here I added a lot more contrast in the water to see if that would save it. The blue was much too dark before, so now that it is lighter it also has a better sense of sunlight on the water.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2012-01-11T14:51:00.002-07:00

Well Jim sold a nice piece for me today. During our opening night the gallery became very crowded; so crowded that it usually puts off any potential buyers having to deal with bodies milling around in front of the work. You just can not get a good view of the painting. But sometime during that evening I had a conversation with a nice woman about my art work. She came back today after thinking about one of my pieces and bought it. She felt it would make a nice addition to her entry way at home.

I like to hear things like that!!!

In this piece I added a few canoeists this morning to give it a little more life. I had the painting in Southam Gallery and I guess they were not getting the response they wanted. So when that happens it doesn’t hurt to add something more.

Richard

Tuesday

2012-01-10T13:34:00.004-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the top of Mt Bachelor with Jim’s cell phone camera.

Today I added the rigging to the masts and touched up a few more parts on the boats. I’ll bring it to the crit session on Thursday to get some more feedback on what it might need. But I do think it’s close to done, maybe just a few small things here and there.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Jan 9

2012-01-09T15:41:00.001-07:00

I’m back; Rick Graham and I had a fun time in Bend, Oregon. We were surprised at the amount of people at the show, it coincided with their Art Walk and the population came out in droves.

The next day Jim Peterson and I did a day of skiing up at icy Mt Bachelor. The evening of the show it started to snow in the town and of course the rumors were flying that feet were being dumped at the resort. So we decided to see how true it was the next morning.

After paying my exorbitant lift ticket we rode up to the top and found about two inches on top of month old ice with a nice strong wind howling in your face. It did make for some challenging skiing and was fun to go exploring the volcanic peak with Jim and test out the Cascade snow. Some people describe it like skiing in wet concrete. From the top the views were spectacular looking down on Sparks Lake and the Three Sisters.

It was also time to get back to work again; so here is today’s result on the boat painting.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2012-01-04T14:44:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow we are off for the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon; weather looks good for driving. Just a little too good, this lack of snow is getting on everyone’s nerves. Skiing on grass isn’t much fun!

The drive if all goes right will take about ten hours, ten hours of driving along some of the most isolated roads in the West, especially through Eastern Oregon.

I had a few errands to do today so not much was done on the boat painting, just a little on the middle boat. I’ll have time to attack it again when I get back into town on Monday.

Richard

Tuesday

2012-01-03T14:25:00.001-07:00

Just worked some more on the painting; focusing in on a few of the boats off to the right side. With all the rigging I know it won’t be done before I leave for Bend, Oregon: as they say just too much information to paint. So its best to take my time and do it right; after all I still have all the reflections in the water to work on and that could take a while.

Richard Boyer

Monday, January 2, 2012

2012-01-02T14:16:00.004-07:00

The New Year is here; time to make amends and some of those classic resolutions that will last two weeks. We had some friends over for a nice dinner in the evening and drank good wine until the wee hours of the morning; except for that firework interruption at midnight. It was actually a very relaxing time and fun to catch up with some old friends. Unfortunately the next morning was just a little cloudy though and I don’t mean the weather.

Sunday was one of those lying around days. Plenty of coffee and a healthy brunch of eggs, potatoes and what ever kind of meat we could find in the refrigerator helped. Finally around three in the afternoon I though enough was enough and I started a 24x36 boat painting for Southam Gallery.

It started first as a block-in to get the composition done, the perfect project when you are tired from the night before.

And then today I progressed on to the background. Since the masts and rigging will be covering over that part it made sense to paint it first.

I’ll see if I can get this done before I drive to Bend, Oregon. This Thursday Rick Graham and I will be heading out there for our two man show at the Mockingbird Gallery. Last week I sent off about eight pieces, so hopefully they should be arriving there today or tomorrow. We’ll stay a few days and come back on Sunday. Jim, the owner was talking about skiing at Mt Bachelor, but with no snow in the West that doesn’t sound too promising. The idea of skiing on man made snow down the beginner runs could be fairly lame.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec 26

2011-12-29T13:35:00.004-07:00

It’s been one of those light snow years so far, the ski resorts are desperately making man-made snow through the night in an effort to satisfy the winter crowds and all they hear is the long range forecast reports of sunny weather. The highway over the mountain pass by our cabin normally would have the gate closed at Soapstone basin with several feet covering the road over. The only option would be to travel with skis, foot or snowmobile the rest of the sixteen miles up to the pass at 11,000 feet plus and over the range to the other side. There, one could, if one was determined enough travel some 30 extra miles down to the small town of Evanston, Wyoming.

This winter has been different, a few inches are on the road and they have a small sign by the side of the open gate informing the adventurous traveler that there is no winter service from this point on. Another words go for it, if you get stuck in the snow on the road you are on your own!!!

We drove past the sign to see how far we could go up.

These are the people you read about in the paper who get stranded for days on end only to be discovered in the spring with the family dog half eaten up.

Yesterday we got up several miles below the summit before our cars, both of which are four-wheel drive started spinning sideways in the steep incline of snow. We gave up, parked the vehicles and did a small cross-country ski tour. That night we were scheming how to get the cars up all the way to the pass.

Today we packed a big lunch, loaded everyone up in both cars with skies and shovels and headed up to the closed highway to the point we made it to yesterday. There we put chains on the Volvo XC and continued on up the rest of the way. We saw only snowmobile tracks ahead of us, no four-wheel vehicle had ventured up so high, it was virgin territory for us and the car was sliding side to side as it slowly worked its way up higher and higher. At 11,000 feet with maybe a foot of packed snow on the road, in sight of the last curve over the top we decided to park it and break out the skis. Bald Mountain at 11,943 stood in front of us; we decided to try to ski around it. The sun was out, it was warm in the air and off we headed in a serenely quiet snow covered landscape. We worked are way through pine trees, rock fields and open meadows to a basin on the back side of the mountain at 11,500 in the dead of winter. A first for us in the middle of December and only possible because of the light snow fall so far.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-12-22T14:46:00.001-07:00

It’s actually sunny today; a small snow storm came through the valley and blew out most of the smog. That cold damp feeling in the air is finally gone and I can feel the warmth of that large yellow ball up in the sky.

I worked some more on the Colonial House painting. It‘s an old stately house up here in my neighborhood which the hospital bought to entertain guests. From what I remember reading about; it was first build by a woman who made it big from mining gold and silver in Park City more than a 150 years ago.

It still needs some work, but at least I can bring it to the crit tonight to see what people think. And for once this evening it is actually not at my place. Nick after a good month and a half of working on construction projects has said that he will host it.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec 19

2011-12-19T14:40:00.002-07:00

Here is another snow painting I have been working on. A few things still bother me about it, but I’ll live with it for a few days and hopefully they it will pop out at me!

Christmas shopping is ever so slowly coming along! Maybe I’ll have everything done the day before.

What else is new.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-12-16T15:22:00.004-07:00

We had a good crit session last night and as usual I ended up with a page of notes on things to fix.

The snow painting here I decided to add a little more paint in the foreground and punched up the colors in the sky. It made for some more contrast and more interesting to look at as well. Now I am quite happy with it and I’ll call it done

Back to the horse painting for the tenth time as well; this one has gone through quite a few evolutions since the start. I’ve re-painted several of the horses in the learning process. I just have to keep in mind that it will take another 998 horse paintings before I get good at it!

Now it’s time to start thinking about Christmas Shopping!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-12-14T12:39:00.002-07:00

It’s been a gloomy overcast day today; it would be a lot nicer if it would just snow.

Well that being said I decided to start another snow painting. Why fight it when you can join it?! It will be one of those architectural nightmares with the brick house but with the snow covered trees in front it should look nice when done.

The house is an old Victorian home back in New York State, another shot I took while visiting the parents. This place was a few miles from them in the town of Lockport. Back in the early 1800’s when the canal was in full swing this town was one of those wealthy merchant centers with cargo traveling through every day in record numbers. Mansions like this sprung up everywhere. Now fast forward 160 years and it’s more or less an economic dump with high unemployment. The house would most likely sell for under 200K.

As they say location, location, location

Richard

Tuesday

2011-12-13T14:24:00.002-07:00

I finished off the moody snow painting; it’s actually a section of the Erie Canal back near Buffalo, New York. My parents moved to a new house near the canal ten years ago. So the last time I was visiting them in the dead of winter I decided to go out and shoot some snow pictures. The canal goes from Albany to Buffalo and was used heavily to get goods out West before the development of the train. The view I have is at a wider spot as it enters into a river.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec. 12

2011-12-12T14:11:00.002-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Santa Lucia with the Swedes. Lucia was actually a beautiful woman back around 304 AD destined to be married. Unfortunately she was catholic and the Roman Empire didn’t like that idea. You see her wealthy mother was miraculously cured of some mysterious illness at the local church and so Lucia came up with the not so popular idea of donating all their money to the poor. Her fiancée was the one who thought it not so popular; in fact he found that generosity so appalling and turned her over to the Emperor Diocletian for torture and finally death. Her eyes were cut out and then she was hacked apart with a sword, a rather grim way to go. That’s why the candles are used now a day, to celebrate the light or vision.

Any ways for the Swedes this makes for a fun pre-Christmas celebration with fortified spiced wine, home made beer and food galore. We all gathered at the local school and carried out the festive occasion: making sure that none of the participants were tortured in the process.

With the low light and candles the signing ceremony really has a nice holiday feeling. It was good to meet up with people and chat about life, especially since we only seem to meet a few times a year. Most of the women and kids danced around the Christmas tree, while the men tried out Troy’s home made beer. Ah, somethings never change!!!

Back to the real world of art, here is a small 16x20 snow piece I’ve started for Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery. It’s just the block-in.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-12-09T15:22:00.001-07:00

As expected the horse painting was filled with mistakes and so it’s back to the drawing board for some of the horses, which is what I was working on this afternoon. I should have it done on Monday

The café painting I changed around a bit also this morning, mainly the color of the umbrellas, which of course meant changing the color of the flowers as well.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-12-08T14:16:00.002-07:00

Here is my second study of horses and I’m sure James Reynolds would be rolling in his grave with the mistakes I did. I’ll show it to the crit people tonight and see what the consensus is.

With reference to yesterday’s blog and the 1000 paintings the artist should do before he becomes good; a friend of mine, David told me the same holds true in most fields of expertise. In this case 10,000 hours seems to be the magic number, before say a person masters the art of fencing or javelin throwing. So with the average of ten hours per painting the artist would come out the same.

Food for thought!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-12-07T14:20:00.002-07:00

I started another horse study painting today. It’s the only way to get good at it, just keep painting the subject matter over and over again. And maybe to but the horse anatomy book as well!

It’s just a block-in !!!

Back in the 90’s Joe Wade from the Joe Wade Fine Art Gallery once told me that an artist doesn’t really get good until after he or she has done about a thousand paintings under their belt. Sounds like an awful lot, but there is some truth to the saying; the only way to get good at something is through mileage.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-12-06T14:38:00.002-07:00

We had our figure painting session last night at Rick’s and here is my result for what it’s worth!

I keep wondering what it would be like to have another day to work on it, how much farther along I could bring it. But, alas with these three hour figure sessions you are in the heat of the battle and only have a finite amount of time to make it work as best as possible.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Dec 5.

2011-12-05T14:26:00.004-07:00

I got one of those calls from the gallery on Friday; apparently some top executives from a law firm walked in and wanted to buy a painting for one of their partners who was planning to retire. In the back of my mind I was thinking about John Grisham’s book “The Firm”, where their partners were retired about six feet under; but any ways I’m sure they are not like that!?

They contemplated one artist’s piece and didn’t see what they were looking for; the firm wanted something with red rock and water, that’s when the gallery called me. They wanted to know if I could paint something over the weekend, something that would appeal to the client.

I took the bait and agreed to work through the weekend. Yes, let’s dangle the carrot in front of the artist and see if he will do it!!!

Here is the result, a quiet little stream in southern Utah in the early spring.

Sunday night it was Pepparkaka production at our house. Like most Swedish families vast amounts of gingerbread cookies have to be made before the holiday season and that is what our house turned into; a production line of baking. The smell permeated up the block.

We now have our holiday supply!

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-12-02T15:12:00.005-07:00

It was a cold sunset up at 9000 feet yesterday, but still it was fun to be up there. I shot this view of Mount Superior before it got too dark.

We had the crit session last night and I pulled out my French Café paintings, along with a pile of other stuff. Filled up a page of notes and this morning I worked on the suggested ideas for these two. I found it quite fun and relaxing to sit down while painting and to work on some of the smaller detailed things to bring the pieces to completion.

This one I just worked a bit on the foreground chair so it wasn’t so obvious.

And this one I painted in the figures a little better, so now the eye has something more to look at. The flowers off to the left were also changed around as well as the tree above. All in all I find it better than the old version.

The horses I also tweaked a little, although that will be harder to detect; mainly small anatomical corrections here and there. I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to get a horse anatomy book and start reading it!!!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-12-01T14:15:00.002-07:00

It was a blustery day in the hundred acre woods this morning, as it goes in Winnie-the-Pooh. Leaves and tree limbs were blowing across the yard and through the neighborhood; basically causing mild havoc throughout the valley with power outages and parts of roofs blowing off. To make it even better I am suppose to drive my daughter up to Alta ski resort for the start of cross country ski training at 4:30 this afternoon, they said with the wind chill factor the temperatures are in the negative numbers up at 9000 feet. Another word down right uncomfortable!

From my weekend session of horse photography up at Midway I decided to do this small 12x18 study as they were lining up in the afternoon light.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday, Nov 29.

2011-11-29T13:46:00.002-07:00

Yesterday and today I worked on the Grand Canyon piece, finishing off the cliffs more on the right side and adding the rafters on the water. Now it looks like another one of those lazy days floating down the river, watching all the killer scenery go by. As they say it is a trip of a life time.

I’ll put the painting aside now and think about it for a few days to see what else it could use.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

2011-11-28T09:25:00.001-07:00

The quest for knowledge in painting is something that will follow the artist until death.

I did a painting of Charlotte and her horse a while back; using some reference material I shot two summers ago while in Sweden. Not knowing a whole lot about horses I copied the images at hand for the painting and sent it off to the gallery. Within a short while the owner, in this case Jim Peterson from Mockingbird in Bend, Oregon called me and told me a few of the negative client comments. I screwed up; I had gotten the horse wrong, too wide in the front shoulders and too fat of a neck. What could I say; my knowledge of horse anatomy was not that of Bill Anton!

I brought the failed painting out for one of the critique sessions and Bryce Liston’s first comment was, “ Why don’t you call up Robert Duncan, he has horses?” Within a few days Bryce told Robert and I was scheduled to head on up to Midway, Utah and photograph some horses to get it right. If his horse weren’t right, then he had a neighbor with a half dozen that might fit the ticket. We were heading up to the cabin any ways this weekend and figured Saturday at Robert’s would work, after all he was only about 15 miles away from our cabin.

It’s nice working with another established artist, who knows his way around horses. Within a few minutes he had his neighbor’s horse in a halter and was holding it in the right position in the barn. I was clicking several frames a second to capture just the precise angle, another words gaining valuable information form a digital camera about horse anatomy. Maybe, just maybe I can re-paint the beast right from the images I took.

It just dawned on me that true artist do this all the time. The process of learning about a subject matter for a painting will probably never end. There will always be something new to paint that I have know idea about. Something that I have to learn about before I can capture it on canvas.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-11-23T14:15:00.002-07:00

In the back of the studio I had an unresolved painting of the Grand Canyon, one of those year and a half unresolved pieces. So I broke it out and saw what I thought was wrong. I had a more downward view of the river, as if you were floating a hundred feet above the water. With that in mind I lowered the perspective in the cliffs and brought up the water level. Now I think with some rafts and people floating down the river it might make for a nice painting.

So here is what I did today, the water and foreground cliffs are still unresolved.

I would like to wish all the Americans a Happy Thanksgiving and try not to eat everything in sight; it makes the house pets rather nervous!

Richard

Tuesday

2011-11-22T13:40:00.005-07:00

I worked more on the café piece today bringing up the contrast and colors; so maybe, just maybe it might be close to done. I’ll look at it after the holidays and see what else it could use with a fresh eye.

Last night we had our model session at Rick’s place and I settled in on a portrait. Its one of those pieces where I feel if I had another session I could really nail it down to a finished painting. But then again the whole reason for the model session is to get quick at painting the figure during the heat of the battle. Trying to get a finished piece done in that small amount of time.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Nov.21

2011-11-21T13:22:00.002-07:00

It’s going to be a short painting week with the holiday. So with that in mind I started a small 10x16. It will be another café painting for the Mockingbird Gallery show this January.

I just blocked it in and added a few figures. Tomorrow I can spend more time on it and bring up the colors better. The scene is in Gordes, Provence.....one of my favorite spots to paint!!!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-11-17T12:50:00.002-07:00

I worked some more on the boat painting since we have crit night. The piece could still use a bit more sunlight, but I think it’s best to wait on that and see it with a fresh eye tomorrow.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-11-16T13:50:00.002-07:00

Does anyone remember “The Borg” from “Star Trek the next generation”, with their line’ ”You will be assimilated…..resistance is futile!”

That’s what happened to an old painting lying around the studio today. It was assimilated, used as raw material to serve a greater cause! Several years ago I did this view over Stockholm’s Gamla Stan with some boats parked out in front. The painting didn’t really work for several reasons, but it did the rounds any ways to a few galleries and understandable never sold. Well this morning I took it outside and sanded the high spots of paint off and decided to start another boat painting using some of the similar underlying colors.

I’ve seen Richard Schmid do this to one of his older works and the results can sometimes be quite exciting. So with that in mind here is what I started today. There is more to do for tomorrow. I intend to play up the water quite a bit with the reflections of the boats and masts.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-11-15T15:01:00.004-07:00

So how do you fit a six person corner sofa in the car?

Buy it from IKEA in boxes and stuff the car full. That’s what we did on Sunday; we needed a new sitting arrangement for the TV room, since the odd collection of old chairs were falling apart. So off we drove to the mega store in the south end of the valley and bought a nice large corner sofa collection. We asked the sales person how big it was for the car and she informed us that it all came in boxes. Another words you had to build the thing, including stretching the fabric over the padded frame with Velcro fasteners. Now that it is done it really looks nice in the room, but it was a major two day project to get it all assembled.

I worked today on the painting of Charlotte and the flowers, fine tuning things here and there. It’s to the point now where I’ll have to set it aside and see what it could use in a week from now.

The next small 12x16 I worked on was an older plein air piece I did up in Bend, Oregon. I didn’t really have time to finish it off on location like I would have wanted it. With an approaching storm it needed much more drama in the lighting. Now I think it reads better. The area is a popular climbing destination called Smith Rock.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-11-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

We had the crit session last night and without the usual wine glass breaking member, it went rather smoothly. I showed this piece and got a few ideas on changes which I worked on today. So now I can call it done. That’s what I always say until it sits around in the studio for a week or two.

I also worked more on the wheat field in this piece. I will add some more blues to the grasses and whiten up her shirt so it will have a more harmonious feel.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-11-10T14:50:00.001-07:00

With the crit tonight I decided to get back on the figurative work again. I changed a few things around on her face; or as the Mafia members would put it, “I rearranged her face a little!” The reality was I wanted to capture Charlotte’s likeness more.

Next I blocked in more of the shirt and hands. It still is not the way I want it to look, but as I bring up the background and other parts I can always fine tune her features more and more. I went out yesterday and bought an extra easel to hold a giant mirror I had lying around in the basement. Now it is set up behind me, so I can just turn around and look at the painting in reverse. It’s amazing the mistakes you can then pick up; stupid little errors that you never notice as you work on it, but when looked at in the mirror they just pop out as glaring blunders.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-11-09T14:28:00.006-07:00

“The Evolution of a painting”

Several years back I did this painting of Gordes, Provence; thinking it was good and sent it off to the gallery. Years past by and the painting slowly migrated upstairs to a less prominent location; the crowds were just not reacting to the work, mo real interest. So as the concern artist, you call up the gallery and inquire why? They usually fire back with the proverbial expression that the painting is fine, lovely work, but that it just hasn’t found the right owner yet. To the artist this means the kiss of death, you fucked up somewhere, you just didn’t give it the snap, the “Je ne sais pas quoi?” it needs to sell.

Well after a few years it arrives back in my studio and sits against the wall for another six months gathering dust. You soon realize that this stack of older paintings is getting larger and larger over the course of time. So I will usually pull it out and look it over with a different eye; an eye that is some what wiser over time and maybe just a little more experienced.

“What about adding a stormy sky?”

“How about changing the light so it is coming more from the side?”

“And you think maybe a road leading the viewer into the picture with some summer dried grasses in the foreground!”

You begin to realize that maybe it just needed more drama, more contrast, or more detail in few areas. Before you know it you are having fun re-painting the piece in a different mind set; creating a new painting form the ashes of the old.

Now I will see how it does?

Richard

Tuesday

2011-11-08T14:37:00.003-07:00

Just out of curiosity this is how our backyard looked on Saturday, the clouds rolled in and the snow was flying. In the end we had several inches on the ground. As I look out now it has all melted except for a few patches still remaining in the cold shadows. I’m hoping it all melts away since we still have leaves to rake up.

We had our model session over at Rick Grahams place last night and here is my result. Her name is Hillary. I have some photos of her so I might just finish it up a bit more. We actually got a nice picture of her just relaxing between sittings which I might do as a painting. She was leaning forward in conversation with another artist.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-11-04T13:09:00.002-06:00

I was back on this painting this morning, something I blocked in a week ago but became distracted with other work. So today I worked on the head mainly and defined more of the body. She is walking through a wheat field with a basket of flowers and yes, I know it doesn’t make sense, but it looked good with the colors. So I am going to paint it any ways.

Mockingbird Gallery as well as Southam Gallery are having shows in January and they want a lot of work from me; then in February I have a show with the May Gallery in Scottsdale. Seems a little much and I am not sure just how I can produce enough for each show, but I said yes and now I have to live with it.

The pressure is on !!!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-11-02T14:25:00.002-06:00

Winter is coming fast; we had heavy frost on the window of the car this morning.

I worked on the café piece again, just trying to keep it simple and loose. The place is Gordes, Provence; which is like the Palm Springs to southern France, a place for the rich and famous. I once walked to close to a parked Maserati there and the vehicle talked back, telling me to step away from the car. I had infringed upon its space bubble!!

Richard

Tuesday

2011-11-01T14:16:00.003-06:00

It’s the day after as they say !!!

Halloween was fun; I went around with Lina and three of her friends as they started their candy collection rounds at six in the evening. They kept going until 9:30 at night, basically until the pillow cases became too full to carry anymore. At around eight I came back home to let Karin have a go at following them. I grabbed a wine and threw myself down in the living room chair. That lasted about a minute until the doorbell rang with another dozen kids screaming “Trick or Treat”. There was a point when it slowed down, the time when most of the little kids had enough and were just too tired to go on. But then the second round started with older kids and the Hispanic crowds. Since we live in a neighborhood where the houses are older and closer together; and where I would have to admit the income level is higher; the selection of candy tends to be more, in some cases quite a bit more! So we are a popular area for the serious aficionados’ in candy collection.

At ten thirty the sugar buzz wore off and we were ready for sleep.

The weather was also nice and warm for the evening; the calm before the storm. This morning we woke up to rain mixed with snow. My studio was dark as could be, so I just worked a little on this smaller café piece. I’ll see if I can finish it off tomorrow.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Oct 31.

2011-10-31T16:48:00.004-06:00

It’s that time again. The time when all those small kids wearing plastic Spiderman masks come timidly to the door and stand there in bewilderment; or at least until a parent off in the distance yells out for them to say “Trick or Treat”.

We have the crosses and spider webs set up outside; the pail of candy ready as well as some hot cider with vodka for the adults who need some warming up. I know this for previous cold Halloween nights with the kids when they were small. They would keep warm running back and forth from house to house, the adults on the other hand were most of the time freezing with hands in their pockets waiting on the sidewalk. A stiff drink offered by a caring neighbor could make all the difference in the world.

In our neighborhood some have really caught the fever. Here you can see some people have gone the whole nine yards with the Volkswagen on the front lawn. It will be a must to visit them tonight.

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and pumpkin carving. Here is the result after gin and tonics.

And this was today’s project. It’s the last painting for Jim at Mockingbird Gallery, since I need to get them all in the mail today and off to the Friday show in Bend, Oregon. This small 16x12 is a scene from Wizard Falls and it really does have this dark greenish blue colored water. The river flows over an old lava bed and is a popular tourist spot. just north of Bend.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-10-28T14:37:00.001-06:00

Last night we attended a party at Southam Gallery, they invited all the artists and spouses down for a dinner and drink to celebrate a month of good sales. They also pulled out some vintage VHS videos of their opening night thirty years ago. Many of the artists at her gallery are older than me and it was cool to see them all so young back in the eighties. Kim, Linda’s daughter was only twelve at the time they opened their doors for a show on Dan Baxter.

I remember doing a show with him up at the Kimball Arts Center in Park City eons ago. I had Randall Lake, a still life artist as a teacher during my first year at the University of Utah and several years later decided it would be good to get a little jump start on the artistic career. So with that in mind I went to the Kimball Arts Center and asked them if they would be interested in a show of some of the prominent Utah artists. They said yes; so I then went to Randall Lake told him about it and got him to ask his other colleges if they might want do the show. Dan and Ken Baxter came onboard as well as about three others. I was the unknown artist tagging along on their coat tails, but it got me some attention and a few writ-ups in the paper. As a beginner I was happy to get my foot in the door, I don’t think I sold anything, but the exposure was worth it.

Here is a small 12x16 for the Mockingbird Gallery, it still needs a little more work to the water, so that will have to wait until Monday.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-10-25T16:28:00.001-06:00

Southam Gallery has been on a roll selling art work like crazy, so I’m happy for that. That’s the kind of news any artist likes to hear. I think for me it’s been close to eight pieces in the last three weeks and I also sold one small 12x16 down in Moab over the weekend. Kim was having a fund raiser for the Moab Trail Alliance, and I put a few pieces in thinking nobody would be buying art work in little old Moab, but I was wrong!

It paid for the trip down there!

Today I worked more on the Mockingbird Gallery piece, finishing off the water with some highlights and adding some warmth to the cabin, which helped a lot.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Oct 24

2011-10-24T16:50:00.005-06:00

Our trip to Moab was fun and not just because of the warm weather and gorgeous fall colors; but more so from the workouts everyday.

On Friday Kim wanted to go exploring up one of the local canyons in Moab. Through her property runs a small stream called Mill Creek which starts somewhere up in the lofty heights of the La Sal Mountains. On its way down to the mighty Colorado River it passes through a beautiful sandstone walled valley called Mill Creek Valley. I was more into the hike for the fall colors since the Cottonwood trees were just screaming yellow against the orange and red cliffs of the canyon.

We followed a meandering stream up with camera in hand, here are a few shots.

Farther up we ran into some pictographs up on the wall. The hike took a few hours and then we were back for burgers at the local hangout called Milt’s. Then that afternoon we were up at the Slick rock trails to do the practice loop with my daughter. The up and down steep slick rock can be a challenge with the gears of a mountain bike, as Lina soon found out.

The next day the other half of the family showed up and we all headed back up to the Slick rock trails again. Karin took Lina on the practice loop and I naively headed out with the boys on the radical ten mile injury loop. A crowd of bikers were at the top of one steep downhill decent that had a nasty forty-five degree angle to the side limiting your traction on the rock. The boys raced down it somewhat oblivious and continued on. I, on the other hand timidly started off and found my wheels slipping out from beneath me and sliding down the eighty grit sandpaper on my side in an embarrassed heap at the bottom.

I knew from then on that this ride was going to be painful at my age. My bones were not made of rubber anymore, nor did I have that on-call adrenaline pump that most teenagers have. I watched them disappear up another steep incline as I huffed and puffed behind. Five miles out we reached the apogee, a rather nervous overlook point above the Colorado River 800 feet below. An energy bar would have been nice right about then, or maybe a Paraglider down to the cool river water below.

After several hours and endless hills of up and down slick rock I was able to make out people standing at the trailhead far off in the distance. My energy had run out several miles back and I was now walking up sections with bike in hands that were too steep to peddle, as twenty years pumped their way up past me with piston like efficiency. I promised myself to look into buying some newer legs.

We finally made it back to the parking lot, where my body felt like rubber. I had the luxury of sitting in the car for the four mile drive back down to Moab; the boys decided to ride their bikes down.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-10-19T14:13:00.002-06:00

I still need to work more on the water, but at least I got most of the foliage in place. Once the highlights are on the water I can adjust some of the values better. So all in all it’s coming along and getting close to done, at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Tomorrow we are leaving on our Fall break, the kids have off from school so we are heading down to Moab for some mountain biking. We have some friends down there where we will be staying, which will be good since I have a feeling it might be crowded in southern Utah with the rest of Utah having the same idea.

Kim, whose house we are staying at is putting together a fund raiser on Saturday at one of the local mansions down there and I was asked to bring some art work along to try and sell at the show. I have a couple river pieces and European scenes. The big question will be if they sell or not, fund raisers have never been a big market for art work in my eyes, but it’s worth a try and it should be a fun event with catering and wine.

Richard

Monday, Oct. 17

2011-10-17T14:26:00.002-06:00

The Mockingbird Gallery is having a show at the beginning of November, so Jim, the owner wanted to know if I could do a few pieces for it. I said yes! This one I block-in last week and worked on so more today. It’s a scene up in the Cascade Range just outside of Bend, Oregon; a place called Camp Sherman.

I painted in the background pine trees and cabin rather quickly just to get the basic values started. Once I get the water in with all the highlights, then I can start to orchestrate the painting and bring up the areas that I want more detailed and blur out those parts I want to recede.

Its fall break with the kids this Thursday, so I’ll try to get most of this close to done before I leave. We have a little bike riding to do on the slick rock in Moab, Utah; which should be fun.

Richard Boyer

Sunday

2011-10-17T13:58:00.001-06:00

Location: 7000 feet up at the cabin.

Our goal was to chop up all the collected wood we got several weeks ago into the right length for the fireplace. This can be said to be the most manliest of professions. To take an over weight chain saw in one hand and single handedly chop up large logs into bight sized pieces to be split into smaller sections with the swing of a heavy axe. Yes, from such actions are the legions of the “Manliness of man” made of.

So after stopping at the factory outlet stores to buy cloths for Victor and Lina and a short stop at the local “Home Depot” in Park City to pick up a chain saw we headed up to the cabin. There I took out the device, filled it up with gas and oil for the saw blade and pulled the starter cord to fire it up…….. nothing. I tried again,….. still nothing. I just couldn’t get it to start. Four letter words began to flow out of my mouth. So I sat down and decided to read the instruction manual, not the manliest of things to do, but at least I had to figure out why it wasn’t starting up. My visions of a butch muscle loaded chain saw operator were vanishing. I was after all a city slicker, clueless of the art of swinging a Halloween gas driven death machine around in one hand.

I sheepishly when down to my next-door neighbor Mark for help. Mark is the kind of guy who re-builds front-end loaders in his spare time for fun. His entire basement has been converted into a car mechanics workshop with every tool imaginable for reconstruction of the most sophisticated gas powered device. His first response to me was “Is there gas in it?” Okay, I may be from the city, but I’m not that stupid, “Yes, there is gas in damn saw!” was my reply. He looked it over like somebody who knew what he was doing and pulled the starter cord several times. My manliness was saved; he couldn’t start it on the first try.

He looked at me and said, “Sometimes these things are a little hard to start for the first time!” and pulled a little harder on the cord. It started up with a gray puff of smoke. He swung it around like somebody who had been doing it since he was a child. I was saved, the store bough device worked. I thanked him and tried to start it myself. This was more or less out of embarrassment since the last thing I wanted was to come back again with a look on my face of not being able to start up a simple chainsaw.

It worked just fine from then on and I was able to cut up all our logs into usable firewood. We are now enjoying a warming fire in the house with enough wood to last for several seasons. At least when I get back to Salt Lake City, I don’t have to mention that my neighbor started it for me!

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-10-14T14:32:00.001-06:00

I finally dropped this one off at Southam Gallery. After playing around with different light scenarios on the umbrellas; I decided on just this simpler version that you see now. Sometimes the easiest solution is the best!

This afternoon as I walked in with the painting; so did the clients that were coming down to look at it as well. It was nice to meet the couple with their daughter. They already own a work of mine, so it was good to put some faces with names. We chatted about the old town of Brugge with their building dating back to the 1300. They had been there before and fell in love with the canals.

This weekend we are heading back up to the cabin to chop wood into smaller pieces.

It’s good to be a lumberjack!!!

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-10-13T15:26:00.002-06:00

Okay back when I was a student I learned very quickly that there was a limit on how long food would keep in the refrigerator. When it starts to turn that classic off gray color or develop patches of green growing like grass; it’s safe to say to throw it in the garbage can.

Now when it comes to items in a box I tend to be rather clueless. Such was the case last night with a box of taco shells. I pulled a chair up to reach the upper shelves in the cupboard and discovered a box of the store bought corn shells, blew off the dust and thought nothing more about it as I prepared the fixing for a taco dinner for the family. My wife was still at work and I had to get Lina and Victor feed before a parent teacher conference that evening.

When everything was ready I called them both and we sat down to eat. “These taco shells taste funny!” was Lina’s remark, “Kind of like chemicals”

Maybe they are just a little old, I responded

Victor made the comment that they tasted like cardboard. At least I figured that paper products are safe to eat, so they couldn’t be that bad?

They did taste like old cardboard, but once you filled them with the hamburger meat, hot sauce, lettuce and tomatoes; they were actually not bad. After all with most hot sauces you could be eating cardboard and not know it!!!

I did know it though at four in the morning as my stomach began to churn into knots and for the next hour or so I was back and forth to the porcelain God in the bathroom.

Now I’ve learned that it does make a big difference how old something is in a box, at least with Taco shells

After cleaning out the rest of my system this morning I worked on the painting here; adding some more contrast and a basket of flowers. It’s a least ready for the crit session tonight.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-10-12T15:28:00.001-06:00

I decided to add the flowers and work a little on the field they are standing in. This will make it look as if they belong there and not floating in some mysterious green mist. I can also see that I need some more contrast in the girls. That will be tomorrow’s project.

So this bright sunny afternoon I brought down a bunch of paintings to Southam Gallery here in Salt Lake City. They sent out this flier last week to all their customers that read “after 30 some odd years they are finally closing our doors!”

After that length of time they have amassed a rather large cliental base. And naturally many are coming in with a concerned look asking why and having a last look around. Reality is that it gets them in the door and they usually walk out with something. They also inform them that they are not really closing, but moving down the street. Yes, a moving sale, but for me it hasn’t been too bad: they have sold several paintings so far with a few more in consideration.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-10-11T16:18:00.004-06:00

It’s been a while since my last confession, as they say in the Catholic Church. Maybe I’m just getting ready for the religious showdown between the Mormons and the southern Baptists. Mitt Romney has retaliated, and now the ball is back in Texas!

We did end up buying a car yesterday, so in usual car dealership fashion, we were tied up most of the afternoon. Our car of choice was a Subaru Outback, something good for the snowy roads here in Utah and I might add something with higher clearance on those rocky dirt roads.

I started two new block-ins on Friday.

One for Jim at the Mockingbird Gallery

and one for myself

And today I worked on the figures a little in this piece. I have a feeling this one will take some time until it right

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-10-06T12:57:00.002-06:00

It’s the second day of storms rolling through the valley; with darkness prevailing and an over all sense of gloom. I just remember the You-Tube video clip of “Johnny Nice Painter”…..black, black like the precession of night that leads us into the valley of despair !!!

Its classic, what can I say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l-HHuZNnFc

An hour ago we saw snow flakes coming down, they were short lived but at least it gave you an idea of the outside temperature. The one silver lining is that it is a good start for the ski season; the mountains above 8000 will be getting several feet after the system moves out on Saturday.

I worked more on the background today, since tomorrow I would like to move on to the figures. It’s a little bit of logistics getting the scene behind the girls finished off before I start painting them.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-10-05T15:08:00.002-06:00

Dark rain clouds are hanging over my studio, in fact the entire week is forecasted to have these dark storm clouds. So how the Hell am I suppose to get any work done!!!

Every time the rain starts up the studio just goes black like night. I know I am exaggerating a little, but when you are trying to paint under natural light the right amount of daylight means everything.

Well here is what I got done today. I just worked on the proportions for the figures.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-10-04T13:33:00.001-06:00

I was back to the Brugge painting today, working on the water and tree to the right. It still needs a little bit here and there, but I’ll save that for tomorrow.

This 30x24 I also blocked-in of Charlotte in the wheat field, it should be a fun one top do!!!

Richard Boyer

Monday, Oct. 3

2011-10-03T12:20:00.003-06:00

Over the weekend it was lumber jack time up at the cabin. Our wood supply was getting low and since winter comes early up at that elevation, we had to go out and collect dead wood. This is actually quite an easy thing to do; once you drive up into the Uinta National Forest you’ll find fallen trees everywhere. We found a good spot halfway up the dirt road at Soapstone Basin; just past the cabins there by the side of the road we found several large pine trees that had fallen down. With our small bow saw we cut up the logs into six to eight foot lengths and filled up the car three times. It was hard work hauling large logs around and cutting them up into manageable pieces; but now I think we have a good winters supply. We just need to cut them all up into smaller lengths for the fireplace. I think we were far too tires to do that this weekend, so it’ll be next week.

I decided to start another painting today of the relatives in Sweden. It’s a scene where they were all picking flowers on the side of a small hill.

Richard Boyer

2011-09-30T14:07:00.003-06:00

So we had a large grouping at my place for the crit session last night. Besides the usual crowd we got a surprise visit from Robert Duncan and Bryce Liston; Robert lives and paints up in Midway, Utah so for him it’s an hour drive to my place. Bryce was having his Thursday evening figure painting session before the crit and they decided to pay a visit.

I’m always for having full time career artists at a crit session, the input to get the painting up to the level in which it will sell is priceless and who better to ask than an artist who is successful at selling in the galleries. And so I am grateful they came last night.

Here are links to those two artists http://www.robertduncanstudios.com/

http://www.listonart.com/

Today I worked on Charlotte walking through the dune grass. Some of the small changes were to add more of her waist in front of the basket and also to play down the detail in that basket. I defined parts on the face as well. Now I’ll set it aside in the studio and live with it for a bit. Maybe a few weeks from now I’ll see something that I could do to make it more appealing.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-09-29T20:37:00.002-06:00

I didn’t get to much farther with the painting. I was side tracked into working on the frames. All in all I have build eight frames from a 9x12 up to the largest at 14x18. The only problem I am having now is dealing with the finish; I just can not seem to get it to look good. I’ve been using Rust-Oleum paints which I am sure are not the industry standard for frame makers. I painted a brown primer on first and added some red tones to it, and then after it dried I sprayed on black and tried to rub it off on areas where I wanted the red to show through. The main problem being that the black doesn’t rub off that easily and it tends to take off the underlying primer as well. I just need to research this a little better and see if I can come up with a more professional result.

Well here is what I did today.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-09-28T15:12:00.000-06:00

Nothing compares to the furry and wrath of two female cats. This morning we let “Einstein”, our older cat in from being out all night, she wanted to replenish herself with something to eat and drink. But there in the middle of the living room floor was Mio, our latest cute little edition to the family. A kitten at six weeks of age is extremely curious and of course wanted to investigate our grumpy old alley cat, Einstein already has social issues with any kind of stranger let alone a new kitten. And she immediately let it be known.

The older cat started that obnoxious cat howl that is generally reserved for outside fights in the middle of the night below your window. Soon it was accompanied by hissing as Mio walked calmly up to Einstein, rather clueless about the potential danger of the whole situation. She ran right up to the time bomb.

Well the grumpy old cat started hissing uncontrollably and I walked over to shoo it away from the naïve little kitten. I stupidly thought maybe I could just pick up the older cat and put her back outside. Instantly I was covered in scratches all over my hands and arms; in what seemed like a split second the cat went ballistic on me. Words can not explain what came out of my mouth as I chased after Einstein. She knows my anger and was soon hiding some place on the second floor.

I was then by the kitchen sink with ice cubes on my fingers.

Here’s what I did today with bandages on my painting hand.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-09-27T14:02:00.002-06:00

I really wanted to start another figurative piece today, but with real life obligations, I am committed to do a European landscape painting. Southam Gallery is moving into a new location, after thirty some odd years of being in a small narrow box on a street surrounded with abandoned buildings. Yup, they are moving up in the world, right down from the brand new City Creek Mall on Main Street and there grand opening will have a European flair. This is where I come into the picture; they called me and are looking for some catchy new Brugge paintings. They seem to have luck with my European works, meaning that this painting will most likely sell, so it comes first, business before pleasure as they say. The new spot will really be nice and a step upwards in location.

I’ve just blocked-in a vertical of the late afternoon sun racking across the canal. So I shouldn’t really complain, after all, this one will be fun to paint.

Richard Boyer

Monday, sept 26

2011-09-26T14:51:00.006-06:00

As it turns out we headed down to St. George, down to the heat of southern Utah and stayed in an air conditioned house one of the doctor’s sons owned. The next day they all took off to their seminar and Lina and I headed up to Snow Canyon. Now don’t let the name fool you, I wish there would have been snow there, at least some cooler temperatures, but that was not the case. Very soon Lina and I were baking in the mid-nineties.

We started out with a short hike in the shade, a small little box canyon called Jenny’s Canyon. At least there in the recesses of sandstone it was cooler.

Our next destination was not so pleasant. Out in the middle of the valley there exists an old lava field that once flowed some few million years ago. And in this jagged sun- backed rock oven there are what they call lave tubes; old remains of vent shafts where the lava spewed out over the surface. Now instead the black rock just radiates the heat as if it was still freshly molten.

Here is the entrance to one of them. I was hoping the caves would go on for miles, but alas they just went down about 20 to 30 feet and stopped. At least the temperature was cool down at the very bottom; it was most likely 68-70 degrees. I could have stayed there all day; But my daughter was pushing me back to the air conditioned house and the backyard pool. We hiked out in 100 degree heat and made a straight line back to the water.

On Saturday we drove up to a much cooler Cedar City some 45 miles north and 3000 feet higher in elevation. We had tickets to the Shakespearean Festival which has become very popular during the summer there. People from all over the world will come to partake and study acting.

We found a cute Bed & Breakfast, ate dinner next door at some small restaurant and walked to our 7:30 performance of “Dial M for Murder” It was well worth it, especially to escape the heat of St. George. For anyone near the area I would highly recommend taking in one of their plays, the ambiance and location is well worth it.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-09-22T13:05:00.001-06:00

Today it was the grass I worked on. The clouds still need some work, but that will have to wait until Monday.

We have been going back and forth with a trip to St. George here for the past few weeks. My wife has a lecture she needs to attend down there and her employer has rented a rather large house for everyone to stay in. The only problem being the forecasted temperature, which will be in the high 90’s; I was trying to avoid that heat wave. She was going to try and find somebody to carpool with for the five hour drive, but nothing came through. So it looks like I will be driving down after all. The one consolation is that the house does have a pool.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-09-21T14:46:00.001-06:00

Here is today’s result. I worked on the face some more, mainly just checking details of her likeness. “When copying a woman, you had better make sure everything is spot on” The last thing you want to hear is the cold voice of, “I’m not that fat!”

I had to enlarge the hand a little also as I worked on the basket area. And that dress may need to be toned down, but I’ll see once I start massing in the dune grass.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-09-20T14:21:00.001-06:00

I worked on the background clouds and her upper body today. There are a lot of blues in the skin tone from the sky, so I want to be sure and play those up where ever possible, especially when next to the warmer reflected light of the ground.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Sept. 19

2011-09-19T16:43:00.002-06:00

I had this painting for a while at one gallery and got it sent back, as the proprietor usually put it, “We haven’t had much reaction on it!” Another words, something is wrong with it and we don’t want it anymore.

That being said I will usually put it in the studio and think about it for a week or two. And in this case it dawned on me that the painting needed more interest than just the carriage turning the corner. So I added some more greenery and flowers and broke up the wall a little to the right. Now I really think it has more to say. Again the real test is if it will sell or not! I was going to send it down to Ron at the May Gallery.

This other piece I also started today, it’s still just a quick block-in. When I was in southern Sweden in August I took a series of images of one of our relatives walking through the dune grasses. The wind was really blowing strong and it made for some nice effects.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-09-15T14:03:00.000-06:00

The other small painting for the Howard Mandville’s show, I decided on a Brugge subject. This medieval town has always fascinated me after painting there several times. Where else can you find buildings from the 1300’s? In most European cities they build out of wood in the medieval times, so anytime a spark flew the entire town would burn up and they would have to start over again. It wasn’t until the 1600’s that most learned from their mistakes and started new construction out of fired brick.

Brugge started early on with brick since they cut down most of the forests near the town, they found it easier to fire bricks right on location.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-09-14T15:41:00.002-06:00

The Howard/Mandville Gallery is having a miniature show in October. And I need to get them a few pieces before then. There seems to be a lot of galleries doing this; maybe the idea of selling something small just before Christmas might get people to think for ideas. “Just perhaps a few stocking stuffer items!”

Well I did this small 11x14 of a café in Amsterdam, actually the red light district in day time. If it was at night I would have to put in the “scantily clad evening ladies” and that might be harder to sell.

Richard

Tuesday

2011-09-13T14:12:00.003-06:00

I finished off the Metz Cathedral painting. So now I can put it aside and look at in a few days to see what more it needs.

This afternoon I was going to work more on the frames that I am designing. I came up with a plaster relief pattern that will go around the inside edge of the frame. With modeling clay I made a rope pattern and then a silicone mold of that, so now I can just pour plaster into the mold and produce the same design to go around all the frames. I’m in the process of gluing them on to the wood now. Once that is complete I can gesso the entire frame with plaster design and work on the final finish.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Sept 12.

2011-09-12T14:38:00.006-06:00

Saturday we had the Avenues Street Fair again and my job was to make and serve coffee in the morning while asking for a small donation. This, from what I have heard, is how you avoid getting a business license and charging sales tax which the committee at the Street Fair expects. Donations are tax exempt.

I borrowed the large peculator pots from the troups local church and got up at 7:00 in the morning to start the coffee for the fair. I told them I would have it all ready at 8:30 and poured the water in and opened up a pound of donated fresh ground beans in the top. The machine bubbled away and I thought all was fine as I made myself breakfast. Half an hour later it stopped making sounds and the little light went on. I thought it was done, until my wife came down and looked at it. “Aren’t you going to set this thing on?” The coffee at the top was bone dry; apparently the @%# machine didn’t heat the water up hot enough so it would peculate to the top. I tried the next machine and it leaked out from the bottom, another defect! Yup, the morning was off to a good start. After a frantic phone call, Martin showed up with a couple of replacement pots and I was able to get the coffee down there at ten in the morning.

We still ended up raising a couple hundred!

Sunday we did a steep hike up to Gobblers Nob from Millcreek Canyon. It was one of those trails designed by an amateur forest service employee, a trail that just went straight up 2000 feet at a thirty degree angle. Switchbacks were omitted.

After climbing up several thousand feet, your knees and leg muscles were feeling it. We finally arrived at the top for lunch. The views were spectacular looking down into Little Cottonwood Canyon. There we met another guy at the top who told us about a milder way of going down via the adjacent canyon and then switching back over to the path we took up. We agreed since the prospects of pounding your knee joints down a steep grade sounded painful.

The path was in fact less steep but about four times the distance in length. We made it back much later than we expected and as I expected the knee joints were aching

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-09-09T14:08:00.004-06:00

The crit went well last night and as usual I ended up with a lengthy list of small changes on the paintings I presented. Grant it most of the changes are so minuet that nobody would notice, but as artists must do, they will find something.

So, on this one I added some more color to the one side of the barn and added yellow to the grass.

Here I raised the shoreline behind the last boat and worked a little on the water. I also added Lilly pads to the back ground and even threw in a flower one of them for good measure.

The beach scene was also changed a little. The figure needed some work and I added some more pallet knife to the grasses, along with a few more flowers. And I worked a little more on the Metz Cathedral from yesterday. I figured it wasn’t worth a progress picture yet, that will have to wait until Monday.

We have the Avenues Street fair tomorrow, where they block off several blocks for artists and vendors set up their booths. I’ll be there serving coffee to get donations for the local Boy Scout troop 34. Its bound to be a fun event.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-09-08T13:33:00.002-06:00

I got a call from one of the galleries yesterday. They have a client interested in the cathedral in Metz, France. So that was today’s project, an evening view with the church in light and the foreground in cooler shadows.

Here is a pic of the block-in, which I will work on more tomorrow. We have another crit session tonight so I’ll show it to them and get the group opinion.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-09-07T13:48:00.005-06:00

Meet the newest addition to our household. We still need to find a name for the fuzzy thing ! I just have to keep it from scratching the paintings, since I am the designated caretaker during the day. It has free roam in my studio as long as I keep the door closed. We have another cat in the house that doesn’t like this new adopted child. On the first encounter our cat “Einstein” hissed and growled making it quite apparent that if we were to let go of kitty for even a second it would devour the prey for dinner. Our young kitty is oblivious to this life and death scenario!

I decided to try one more Zorn painting, a study he did of figures in water. The original is quite small, maybe 20x16; but in my case I went with a 24x18. This piece is where he introduced a fifth color into his pallet and used a green. From looking at the original one can tell it was done in one session as a sketch, nothing is really brought into detail and is left up to the viewer’s imagination. I tried my best to the same and figured I’ll let you be the judge of it.

Here is the original by Zorn

Richard

Tuesday

2011-09-06T17:21:00.002-06:00

We escaped up to the cabin for the long weekend, an excuse to get away from the heat in the valley. When we arrived Karin figured it would be a good idea to plant some trees, since the deer ate the ones we planted last year. This was already sounding like an annual event! But any ways we went down to the local hardware store in Kamas and bought three pine trees on sale. My job was to pull out the dead ones from last year and dig larger holes for the new ones. We also purchased a pick axe since as I found out the ground is composed mainly of rock. It seemed like every swing of the tool ended in a body wrenching thud against a large rock. After half an hour I had a small hole about the diameter of a bucket. The tree went in and I started on the other two. That evening I was feeling it in the muscles. A few gin and tonics help that.

The next day we decided to go exploring and picked out a lake just over the pass. Lake Cuberant was our goal and as usual the dog was right behind us waging its tail. On the map it was a three mile trip with another thousand feet of elevation gain. The lake itself was up at 10,500 feet and bound to be ice cold for swimming. The path took us by large meadows with streams wandering through the middle. A place where the dog instantly dove into the water to cool off; sending terrified fish darting left and right. After a while we hit the tales fields of the mountain and started a rather steep argues decent up the side. The lake was around the corner but up in a basin. We arrived several hours later at a pristine lake.

It was time for lunch. The dog jumped in the water again and sent ripples across smooth lake. So much for the “National Geographic” shot !!!

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-09-02T12:03:00.003-06:00

I’ve been trying to build some of my own frames, at least struggling to learn how. Rule number one would be to have a miter saw that cuts at exactly 45 degrees and not 45 and a half. So now none of the corners fit together tight and its going to be a @#% pain to get them to work right, at least to be strong. I have a feeling I’ll need to break out the Biscuit Jointer and the Pneumatic nail gun to keep everything from breaking apart.

I remember a friend of mine who had a frame shop eons ago and he had a large table saw built to cut at only a 45 degree angle. Alas the business went under and the saw was sold off at auction. The cost of one of those babies is several thousand, so I am forced to work under less than perfect conditions here with this stupid carpenters miter.

I tried another Anders Zorn study with the four colors again with so, so results!

This is the original by Anders Zorn.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-08-31T16:19:00.004-06:00

I worked on a copy of Anders Zorn’s painting today: just to get a little practice into the way he thought a hundred years ago. With that in mind I also used his pallet of only black, white, yellow ocher and cadmium red light and yes, it was a learning experience for me.

I just did a close up of the head and left out most of the surrounding area.

This is the original done in 1889; he was 29 years old when he did it!!!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-08-30T16:41:00.002-06:00

Here are two more pieces I touched up from the trip. The smaller 9x12 was done in Hälsingland one evening when the fog rolled in. The scene reminded me of something out of Jack the Ripper. It was so thick you could barely see five hundred feet, but yet the sound would carry and you could hear conversations from far off.

This other 12x16 is done in Östhammar, it’s some old boat houses that seemed to have a little character.

Monday , Aug 29.

2011-08-29T16:48:00.004-06:00

Over the weekend we had the Crayfish party with some friends up in the small town of Wanship. The beer was flowing and there were piles of the red crustaceans heaped up on the tables. They invited a large crowd of Swedes to gather up there and that usually means one thing. “Heavy drinking!” With caps and bibs on we all looked like guests of a five year olds birthday party.

I think Hank and I ate the most crayfish, we figured the amount of energy used to de-shell the things was the same energy you would get from eating it. Somebody had to tell Hank to stop after several hours. The Weber River flows through their yard so people were just throwing the shells in the water. It was decedent with shot after shot of snaps and song.

The following day was a little slow going though. I think most of Sunday was just lying around.

It was a good party!!!

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-08-26T15:43:00.003-06:00

The crit went well last night, organized and to the point. Yes, you guessed it: that one member who can ramble on and on, the one who always seems to break his wine glass, or spill it across the floor, wasn’t here. He was kicked out of his apartment in the summer for failing to pay the rent and now lives at a friends house in the middle of the valley; a distance too far to walk!

Well I worked on a few of the pieces from Sweden. This first one they wanted the door to the left closed, so I left it slightly open and it seems to lead the eye more towards the center of interest.

The next one I opened the barn door and brought up the color in the second barn in the back ground.

Ditto to this one also, I opened the barn door and distressed the wood a little more. Another words aged the barn 50 years, something the home owned would never approve of in reality.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-08-24T14:15:00.003-06:00

Another hot day again, but still the work goes on. Here are two pieces I finished up. With the crit session being tomorrow I’ll see what the fellow artists will say, maybe it might be back to the drawing board for some of them?

I’m going to have to face the heat wave now and ride the bike down to Phillips Gallery to buy more stretcher bars. Its about a mile away and all downhill, the only problem is coming back up the steep incline in 96 degree heat. I ran out of 12x16’s; so if I want to paint tomorrow I better get them ready today.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-08-23T16:46:00.006-06:00

It’s hot out today, 95 degrees (35 Celsius); what a contrast from Sweden. I feel like I’ve walked right into an oven. Right now I would much rather be back in the cool weather of northern Europe!

I spent the day just touching up some of the work I did over in Sweden. Mainly bringing more light into the pieces since they all seemed a little dark. Maybe it was the overcast skies that did it?

Richard Boyer

Monday, Aug.22

2011-08-22T15:06:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the big Cray fishing day up at Strawberry Reservoir. Our friend Hank was up there early with some home made traps pulling them in left and right. He had five traps going and was amazed at the size and abundance of the crustaceans. Hank was pulling them in just a few minutes after placing them. When our family arrived up there at 11:30 he already had a cooler full of the beasts. It was my job to cook them all in the traditional Swedish style. I borrowed an industrial four burner gas stove that I was able to set up on the shore. With plenty of water, porter beer, crown dill and salt I went to work. Two pots going and the production started. We were able to process them all. It’s generally a grueling procedure since all the Crayfish have to be systematically cleaned out by placing them in a series of clean water tubs, before they are boiled. We were finally done around six in the evening and I was exhausted, ready to sit down with a cold beer. But that was not to be, we still had an hour and a half drive back to our house.

Here is a short video clip Markus did of the life of a Crayfish. Unfortunately all the ones in the trap are slated to be executed !

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-08-19T15:18:00.001-06:00

I’m back in the USA and waking up every morning at 5:00am. God I hate jet lag!

Usually the best solution is to have a bottle of red wine, and then you sleep like a log through the night. The flight actually went well; I was some what expecting major chaos at JFK airport from the descriptions Karin and Markus were giving on their return flight. But with our trip the plane actually landed at the same terminal for our next flight out to Salt Lake. After hauling the luggage through customs we left it at the connecting flight area and went through a no-line security, up the stairs right to the gate. Some thing must have changed in their routine, since before you had to go to another terminal and through a long line for security. Who knows maybe they got wise at JFK.

After spending yesterday downloading all the pictures I took, unpacking and cleaning all the dried paint off the pallet; I was ready to paint again.

This one I just added a bit more contrast too.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-08-16T06:45:00.000-06:00

It’s our last day in Sweden with overcast skies. I seem to have mixed feelings about going back, back to reality, back to the grind of everyday living. As Grandma use to say, “All good things have to come to an end!”

Right now we are packing and trying to keep the weight of the suitcases under the limit of 23 kilos. If not, then Delta will just smile and charge you some over the top fee for being heavier. With my easel and painting gear I am always at the limit, so I have to transfer over weight to the kid’s bags. It’s all a juggling game to fit in all the accumulated stuff you picked up along the way.

Next entry will be from Salt Lake City, unless we get stuck at JFK, which wouldn’t surprise me !

Richard Boyer

Sunday

2011-08-14T12:48:00.000-06:00

It was a long drive yesterday; with the lunch stop and another slight embarrassing complication. We were on the road in a packed car for ten hours from Skåne to Östhammar. The road seemed to never end. Even after we got home, with a wine in hand at the end of the day I still felt like I was driving along a freeway.

So what was the embarrassing situation?

I hesitate to actually tell it, it’s something I never could imagine myself doing. Along the E4, the main four-lane highway that runs the length of Sweden, after just leaving Skåne at the southern tip we needed to stop for gas. We looked for the signs and took the first one just off the highway. I filled up while Lina and Elsie went to the bathroom located outside around the side of the building. I met Lina as she came out and watched her heading back to the car. I had to wait a bit for somebody else to come out of the bathroom before I could go in, cursing the gas station for only having one restroom. After finishing my business I came out and saw Elsie waiting in the car. Victor was fast asleep in the back seat, so I didn’t want to disturb him.

With Elsie in the passenger seat I felt that all were waiting for me, after all I took a while to get back to the car. Elsie made the comment, something to the effect that everything was ready to go and now we had a full tank of gas. I pulled out and was soon driving at 130 kilometers an hour north on the E4, looking at the farm country, as we zipped past. The backseat was quiet I figured both were asleep. The rear-view mirror was adjusted at a higher angle so I could see out over the top of the luggage and didn’t give me a view of the kids.

That’s when Elsie’s mobile phone rang to her surprise. The voice at the other end was asking if we had a little girl called Lina. Elsie started laughing thinking it was some kind of a joke from her relatives. I sat up to get a better view of the back seat in the mirror. Where Lina sat was empty, Victor was fast asleep in the other seat. I had a quick rush of panic and yelled out for Lina, halfway expecting her to pop up from behind the seat. I yelled out again louder and called back to Victor, who was just waking up with all the commotion. That’s when I realized we forgot my daughter at the gas station. Elsie told the concerned employee at the station that it was in fact our lost child.

We had managed to drive ten minutes without noticing the kids in the backseat. I did my best not to panic and looked for the next exit to turn around at. The sign said two kilometers, in my mind it might as well have been 20, it seemed to take forever. On the drive back we looked for the Shell gas station where we filled up at; a task not that easy from a different direction. We pulled off at one exit only to find out it was the wrong Shell gas station. I had a feeling it was farther than we thought and got back on the highway heading south.

Finally in what seemed like an hour we found Lina calmly waiting in the store with a magazine in her hand. The employee there had done a quick Internet search and pulled up Elsie’s mobile number when Lina told her that we took off without her. We thanked her profusely and hugged my nervous daughter with a thousand apologies. Apparently as she was heading back to the car, decided to run in the gas station store to just kill time and look at a few things. None of us realized this and assumed the car was fully loaded ready to go.

As they say it only takes once, then it will never happen again.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-08-12T03:24:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we decided to tour “Slottsholmen”, maybe better known as Malmö Museum of culture and history. With non-stop rain it was a better option than driving along the coast. The forecast seems the same for today also, our last day here as another front moves through southern Sweden. According to the newspaper tomorrow should be sunny as we sit in a car for eight hours driving back to Östhammar. So #@%& typical !!!.

Well I have to see the trip this way, at least we had one good day on the beach in sunshine where I managed to squeeze off a painting and I did get plenty of pictures of Charlotte. She was the girl in the “Horse Whisperer” painting. Over two days where the sun would peek out behind rain clouds I managed to get her in different scenes with a variety of clothing; so now from 2000 odd pictures I should be able to find a few paintings to do. Most of the clan down here think I’m crazy any ways for taking so many, but what can I say, when you get it all back home in the dead of winter it never seems like you took enough images.

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:  Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer  the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,  Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,”

Here’s an old Viking from the museum they found in the area.

The next picture is my son playing around in the exhibition about the Black Plague. They had a cart set up in a dark corner with a plaster cast of a dead body on it. He decided to enhance the effect a little.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-08-11T03:02:00.007-06:00

The rain is pouring down today. We had planned to do a small trip up along the coast, but are waiting now for a break in the weather. Right !!!

Yesterday in the late afternoon we took the train over to Copenhagen to meet up with Lina. From where we are here out in the country it took about 45 minutes with the new bridge, quite an achievement in modern engineering. Now anyone form southern Sweden can hop on the train and get quickly to Copenhagen’s international airport, the first stop across the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd3Al6tPj5A

I did a small YouTube clip of last years adventure, but with the rain this time I decided to just take the camera. We were only going over to meet her at Osterpoort, the train station a few stops after the central station.

We drove the car and parked it at Hyllie train station just outside of Malmö and after waiting ten minutes we were on a high-speed train racing across the bridge. There is a man-made island in the middle of the channel they build to change the rail line and road over from the bridge to an underground tunnel. There they basically sunk tubes down to the sea bottom and welded them together to make it airtight. Not a very comforting thought when the train starts it’s downward decent into the depths. One leak and everyone would be gone!!!

Well after a few minutes we were seeing daylight coming up into Denmark. We stayed on to Osterpoort and met Lina with he friend’s family. There we exchanged greetings and small talk and were back on a return train 15 minutes later. Siwert, our Skåne relative thought the whole operation went very slick. We were back for dinner within a short time.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-08-09T10:59:00.001-06:00

We loaded Elsie in the car with the four of us and took a drive through the countryside and along the coast. The rain was coming down as usual, but we figured it wasn’t worth just sit around, depressed in the house wishing for a better day, its just not going to happen with rain predicted the entire week here. So we ventured out, taking a drive down memory lane for Karin’s mother. First was a stop at “Johanna’s Museum”. This man born sometime around 1912 started out as a car mechanic and builds his first car; from then on he began collecting old items from cars, bikes, tools and anything else you could imagine. The museum is filled with these things all in pristine condition and most of which you can handle. Great for those of us who like to press the old horns on the Model T’s and see how loud they echo in the building.

Our next stop was a farmhouse the family owned back when I met Karin. At the end of a long dirt road out in the middle of the fields was the small stone house. We use to spend some time here eons ago it seems. But now the place looks so much different, they had renovated it up to modern standards. We knocked at the door but nobody was home.

From there we drove a short distance to the coast and walked around the windy shoreline. With the storm clouds rolling in it made for some nice contrast. The waves were crashing along the break wall and spray was flying up in the air. It was a nice summer day with everybody in sweaters and raincoats!

Here are a few pictures.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-08-09T03:11:00.002-06:00

Here is the game we played earlier on with the relatives. A slightly different version of soccer.

Richard Boyer

Monday, Aug 8

2011-08-08T09:00:00.004-06:00

We are now down in Skåne at the very southern tip of Sweden. And its harvesting season down here, everywhere you look there are people out with the columbines cutting down tracts of wheat and oats. It turns into a mad rush to get everything cut before the rains arrive. The ground and the hay itself all has to have a certain percent of moister, it’s actually down to quite a science. If the rain gets everything wet again, they are committed to waiting a few days until the crops can dry out. The whole week here is looking very sketchy with rain every other day.

Well since I am not a farmer, we decided to go to the beach this morning. It was sunny with nice large fluffy clouds in the sky. Falsterbo was our location and with the wind blowing hardly anyone was there. I decided to do a small painting up in the dunes as the rest swam in the sea. I was having a fun time in the sun painting the blowing dune grass. I’ll have to improvise some people into it later to give it more interest.

We just dropped Lina off at the train station; she has a friend in Copenhagen and will be visiting them for the next two days. They came over by train to pick her up late this afternoon and we will do the same over there on Wednesday. On the way back from the station we watched a wall of dark clouds moving across the fields; a dark front coming from Denmark. The clouds had that eerie greenish blue color that one might be concern about if you lived in Kansas. Instead we got hit with the torrent down pour. So we are back at Elna and Sivert’s house now enjoying Gin & Tonics on a glass porch.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-08-05T05:28:00.006-06:00

Tomorrow we will be driving down to Skåne, located at the very southern tip of Sweden. There they have a nice sandy coastline with an abundance of dunes where I have done many a painting. The easel is already in the car! This is where Elsie’s family comes from, and I should add that it is a very large family tree down there. It feels like most of the members of the village are some how related to her is some way or another. From here the drive will take about nine hours, even more since they are doing all this road construction through Stockholm. It would be nice if you could by-pass the city, but since it is surrounded by water the closest alternative would be hundreds of kilometers out of the way to the west.

One of the problems about being an artist, especially around relatives, is that you are asked on occasions to use your artistic ability in some way or another; be it to judge what looks best or if a color works well with something. Such was the case with Karin’s sister; they wanted to know if I wouldn’t mind throwing something up on the wall of their back porch. Its basically a three seasoned enclosed area which they have painted white inside and then realized it could use a little extra color here and there. They gave me artistic license to come up with something, so I painted a quick vine with flowers on it. I guess it’s one of the perks of having an artist in the family! Actually in Sweden painted furniture is quite common and during the long cold winters became quite an art form. Each region of the country developing it’s own distinctive style. A tour through Anders Zorn or Carl Larsson’s house and you will really notice the meticulously painted cabinet doors and furniture painted from the area.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

2011-08-04T10:59:00.005-06:00

After dropping Karin off at the airport and waiting around for an hour as they did their long-winded security check. Asking important queries as to what you have and who packed it, so just for a moment lets try to visualize the terrorist answering these questions truthfully and to the best of his knowledge!!!

Markus friend actually had a camping knife in his carry-on that he forgot about, it made it though from Salt Lake City all the way to Stockholm. “So much for security checks.”

We took a short drive up to Öregrund today. The sun was out and the idea of sitting on a rock by the sea sounded ever so inviting. From our vantage point we could look out over open water and although you can’t see it; across the other side of the sea would be Finland. We basked in the sun for much of the afternoon. Now I know how those Walruses feel on the nature channel, not a care in the world!

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

2011-08-03T10:07:00.004-06:00

We are still having sunshine here; it’s almost unbelievable for Sweden. Yesterday we drove about 30 kilometers south to Karin’s brothers house in the middle of a large track of land. I am jealous; they bought a nice place in the country right by a lake. Several of the structures are from the early 1800’s, with the main house up on a hill overlooking the water. It would be the perfect spot for a studio with plenty of subject matter to keep an artist busy for some time.

They have eleven hens and two rosters. The family has decided that two is more than enough; they tend to make a lot of racket in the morning, playing off of each other. And since the sunrises here rather early in summer, one of them has to go. With the coming of fall, the old roster will get the ax and be “coq de vin” for dinner.

Karin fly’s back tomorrow and I will stay on another two weeks with Victor and Lina. We have a trip to southern Sweden planed with Karin’s mother.

Richard Boyer

Monday

2011-08-01T02:44:00.002-06:00

Nothing like a summer cold. A week ago Victor came down with a fever that soon developed into the classic runny nose and coughing misery. It was the inevitable time bomb waiting to move through the family, we were taking bets on who would be the next victim. It was Karin a few days ago, and now its me. I’ll be confined to a box of tissues for the next few days !

Yesterday afternoon the sunny weather finally arrived. I went out to do a painting down the road of some sheep in the morning and started under cloudy skies, which is always nice to paint in since you don’t have the glair of the sun on your canvas. An hour and a half later I was in full sun and had to quit; but at least I go a good start. I kept talking to the sheep as I painted, they can actually be quite social, asking them to keep still; but that didn’t get me too far! They would just look at me and run up the hill.

We’ll spend the day here then head back to Östhammar tonight.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

2011-07-30T13:22:00.002-06:00

The month of July has come to an end and with it the end of the Swedish summer vacation. The restaurants and shops will open up again ready for business after their long break. The visiting tourists will no longer be at awe that an establishment could actually shut its doors for business during one of the busiest months. The signs will once again hang in the windows “open for business”

We were driving up to Hälsingland again today, traveling in the opposite direction of the returning flow. A flow of RV’s and motor homes much like the migration of salmon in the spring, a non-stop caravan of traffic coming towards us. The thirtieth of July, the end of summer vacation for nine million Swedes. I would just like to thank God that we were not part of the snail-paced migration.

The weather is predicted to be sunny up here so with rainy clouds still in the air, I decided to go out and produce this piece. Hopefully tomorrow it will improve.

We just watched on TV a remembrance service in the main church in Oslo; a remembrance for the 77 innocent victims of a mentally deranged fanatic. It was a collection of Norwegian groups, dedicating their artistic talent to those massacred.

Richard Boyer

Friday

2011-07-29T09:35:00.000-06:00

The lazy days of summer have set in, three sunny days in a row. Yes miracles do exist. So as a result of the weather I haven’t been out painting. Karin and I just biked around town looking in shops and did lunch by the town pier. I felt like one of those sea tortoises sunning itself all afternoon on the rock.

Thursday I went out with a 14x18 in hand and just started driving around looking for something to paint. I should have realized this never works with me. It’s always best to have some subject matter or scene picked out in advance; or else you end up doing what I did yesterday. I had this notion to paint the town church, so there I drove and found the trees all surrounding it and offering no real view to paint from. Then I headed up the road to another old stone bridge to find a good view for a piece, but the best vantage point nearby was on the edge of a bridge on a busy highway – a good place to become the next victim in an accident. I took pictures instead and drove farther north to Forsmark.

Forsmark is an old iron-producing factory from the 1700’s. Sweden had the reputation of producing some of the world’s finest quality weapons at that time. And since many spots in the world were at war, Forsmark iron was earning money faster that they could crank it out. The area became quite wealthy.

It was getting late by then and I still couldn’t find a good angle for something; either bushes or trees were in the way, or the angle just wasn’t right. I went home with nothing but photos and a general feeling that the day was a waist. I wasn’t inspired and thank God I didn’t start a painting. I have a box at home filled with un-inspired work!!!

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

2011-07-26T12:06:00.001-06:00

We are back in Östhammar and for a change the sun was out.

Most everyone took off to Skansen today in Stockholm; it’s about an hour and a half drive away and there they have a rather large amusement park with some rides that will make you loose your lunch. I have really no desire to be spun rapidly while hanging upside-down, shaken or stirred; besides the car was full with kids. So I stayed here with Elsie and painted.

After a late breakfast I loaded up a bike and rode down to the town harbor. There I found these old boat houses and parked myself in the shade.

Richard Boyer

Sunday

2011-07-24T09:50:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning to clear skies; this bright orb was shining down light and I actually saw my shadow. I still have to determine what it is? It’s gone now as I writ this! My daughter was up and I decided it best to seize the moment and head to the small lake about a kilometer down our gravel road. Bofara Lake, as they call it is surrounded by farmland and forests, except for a small area where they brought in sand to make a beach. There they have dock extending out where people can swim. They also have a good selection of small rowboats beached to the side. We thought maybe I could paint while Lina swam. The idea was working just fine in the beginning, until the winds started to pick up. An hour later I was holding down my easel against the forces; that’s when we decided it was enough as the black rain clouds moved in. I finished this piece off in the barn as the wind howled outside.

Last night I worked on some old barns down the road.

I got a call from Markus and Gage, they are back from their camping trip in Östhammar and reported only one day of rain up in Åre where they were forced to take shelter in a youth hostel. We’ll be leaving tomorrow to meet Karin and her mother at the airport and then on to Östhammar ourselves. The boys said they would have dinner waiting………hum I wonder what they have in mind?

Richard Boyer

Saturday

2011-07-23T07:12:00.002-06:00

I worked on two pieces. The old window was done last night during a short break in the rain and the one this morning of the plants was done in the drizzle with the sound of thunder in the air. If anything it’s going to teach me about flat light, under this heavy overcast sky most contrast tends to be nil.

Although yesterday we did finish off trimming the hedge!

Richard Boyer