Friday

The service for Jerry White, known as “Trundler”, or by some as “T” went well. It was good to meet old friends and catch up on times gone by. It was a time of many tears and a few laughs reminiscing about the man we will miss. Kevin Holdsworth read a nice story about a very long slog up in the Uinta's they did eons ago, recanting the adventure and the personalities of all those involved.

Afterwards we all went back to Penny’s house for libations and more tears. We promised to connect more with old friends and we relived the many trips of our youth. Connecting with old friends always sounds like a good idea. It’s the reality of our lives that sometimes makes us too busy to connect, never finding the time to get together again, so involved with our own families.

If I can collect emails I will try and gather us together for an evening dinner, just like the old times.

I changed the Grand Gulch painting around a bit, adding a little more color here and there.

And also worked on these two pieces which I will take down to Recapture Lodge in Bluff, Utah. Jim Hook likes when I decorate the breakfast nook at his hotel.

We leave this afternoon for some camping in the San Rafael Swell and then on to Bluff, Utah.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

Today we celebrate the loss of a good friend Jerry White. I’m not going to get into details but it was a senseless way to go and we will all miss him.

Jerry White
2/27/1960 – 3/22/2012

On to a happier note I started a commission piece for Jim up at the Mockingbird Gallery. He has some clients who own a few pieces of mine and would love for me to do a view from a place they spend their summers. The mountain in the background is Mt. Jefferson in the Cascade Range and it is actually a nice view with the creek meandering through the lush green grasses. They wanted the deck chairs left in the painting, so I don’t have much choice there.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

It’s that time of season again, tax time!

Maybe if I just don’t file they will think I don’t exist; but then again that might be like cheating death. It’s not going to happen!

I worked on this 12x16 Anasazi cliff dwelling piece today. Monarch Canyon is about a mile long cut through the sandstone which ends with an over hanging cliff towering above you. Many of these cliff dwellings are up and down Comb Ridge in the four corners area and have made for fun hikes over the years for our families, and in this case for some interesting paintings as well. In the afternoon light, usually the hottest part of the day, the ruin is all in shade and stays relatively cool. Most cliff dwellings are facing usually in an easterly direction, so they would get the warmth of the morning sun and avoid the late afternoon heat. About a thousand years ago water flowed out of cracks in the sandstone behind Monarch Ruin and provided drinking water for the residence.

It would have been a nice place to hang out until the population exceeded the food production, combined with a prolonged drought; civilization soon turned into more survival instincts and the entire area broke down into chaos in the 1300’s.

Richard Boyer

Monday, March 26

It’s a blustery day outside as Winnie-the-Pooh use to say.

We are going down once again to southern Utah this weekend to do a little camping for Spring Break with the Strayer’s. Our destination is some place in the San Rafael Swell.

Then on Monday I’ll continue on down to Bluff, Utah with some of the kids to hang out and hike for a few days. Since we use to go there quite often, we know the owners and for a few years now I have been putting paintings up in their breakfast room. I’ll admit it is a little unorthodox not dealing with galleries, but with them not taking any commission percent out, why not. It’s a good place to show off my southern Utah work and they have actually sold several, especially from the San Juan River trips we do.

I decided to try and squeeze off two smaller pieces to bring down there with me.

So this is today’s little 14x11 study of some fall tree colors in Cottonwood Wash just outside of Bluff. I’ll adjust some of the colors better tomorrow and also work on a 12x16 piece from an Anasazi ruin as well.

Richard Boyer

Saturday

Jerry White rest in peace. 3/22/2012

Friday

We had the weekly figure painting session over at Rick Graham’s place last night. He said she was a really good model, another words she was able to hold a difficult pose and keep still. Rick wanted to try something with the arms up in the air, as she ties a long red shawl on top of her head. For most models this would be next to impossible since the arms would soon be going to sleep, but she managed to pull it off. The arms did lock up after some time so she needed a few more breaks than normal. That being said I wasn’t able to finish the face off since the arms influenced the lighting. We were able to take pictures, so hopefully I can finish it off next week.

I worked on the southern Utah piece this morning. We had the crit session last night up at Nick’s, after the model session, so it was a full night. But any ways they felt I needed a path of some kind leading up the canyon, so I opened up the creek more and now it leads the eye in to the left around the bushes. I also added some lighter oranges and reds to the rock to make it more interesting.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

It’s depressing; I didn’t make it into the Oil Painters of America show. Some friends of mine made it in, so I won’t be joining them on the trip to Denver in June for the show. That will be a major bummer as they say! These shows are always left up to some judges personal preferences, if they don’t care for landscapes, they don’t get in and so on. I thought the pieces were fairly strong, and was hoping at least one of them would make it in, but alas the reality is I will be staying at home for that show.

These were my two entries for what it’s worth!!!

Well today I worked on this figurative piece. I intend to work on a lot more until I get better at this career as an artist. Maybe I just need to get a thousand figurative paintings done before I see an improvement?

Richard Boyer