Monday, June 14

I worked on the harbor piece some more. Mainly I was trying to bring the sky and water together. The water was to blue before, so I added in some of the orange and purple colors from the clouds. It could still use another day on it, to just tweak it here and there.

Two weeks remain until we leave for Sweden, so I need to get stuff in the studio sent off to the galleries and also to get a piece done for the Oil painters of America Western show in Jackson. The event is not that big of a deal compared to their national show. The grand prize is only $4000. In their national I think it was over $20,000.

But it still worth a shot !

Lets see, if it's in Jackson that must mean something Western or with wildlife !

Richard Boyer

Friday

It’s June and we should be walking around in 80-90 degree weather, basking in the sun, but noooo. Here we are putting on ski coats! The next couple of days it’s calling for cold rain, no wonder everything seems to be growing like its on steroids.

We had the crit last night and started off with some nice bottles of wine. It has become tradition now to not come empty handed, but rather with your choice of red wine. We are still trying to get it across to some of the crit members to go to the wine store and pick out something above the ten dollar range. Usually there you can find a good one rated at least 90 for around $12-14. This makes it more fun to open up a few and do some taste testing before the actual critiquing begins.

I brought along the Grand Canyon piece. Seems like a few things needed to be addressed, but all in all it’s done now. I lightened up some of the back cliff area and added a few darks to the foreground. Next week I can bring it down to Southam Gallery

I also added a canoe to one of the San Juan paintings. Last week I sent off JEPG images from all the river trip paintings I did and the only one with a canoe in it sold. And as usual several other people wanted the same piece. Ron Bailey from the May Gallery always preaches, if the painting sells, take it off the wall, or else you’ll have three others coming in wanting that very same piece!

So I added a canoe to the small 11x14 piece here.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

Yesterday we had Lina's fourth grade graduation. A large collection of screaming kids with noise makers will always be the right recipe for a end of year celebration.

I started working on a 24x36 boat painting. So today I blocked in mainly the sky and the base color for the water. Tomorrow I can bring some of the reflections down into the foreground and play up the highlights from the sun. I'll keep the boats all back light to create drama.

I cut up a bunch of linen several days ago, that I will be taking over to Europe. We leave the 27th of June.

From a large roll of linen I place down a piece of cardboard that is cut out to a 12x16 shape, trace around it with a pencil and cut it out leaving 3/4 of an inch all the way around so I have something to staple on to the side of the stretcher bar when I finally come back in August. This way I can take over thirty or so canvases nice and flat in my suitcase. I'll do the same for 11x14 and a few 14x18's. I also toned the linen with a wash yesterday so it will dry in time. This gives me something other than a glaring white canvas to paint on.


Richard Boyer

Monday, June 7th

Yesterday Karin and I decided to do a mountain bike ride. She wanted to leave first thing in the morning after waking up. I on the other hand couldn’t even open my eyes without that first cup of coffee.

Some people will go to the gym early in the morning before eating anything; my wife falls into that category. She usually rolls her eyes when I say that I need to eat a real breakfast before exerting myself to the limits. French toast came to mind yesterday and so after an hour or two we were finished and ready to hit the steep slopes.

As we cycled up the hill to the entrance of City Creek Canyon, the heat from the sun was blistering on our backs. There at the entrance there is a path that goes off to the right and follows the creek for about a hundred feet, from there it basically switch backs itself up the side of the canyon wall to the top. Something, that even in the lowest of gear, you find yourself coming to a complete stop from exhaustion. Maybe if my thigh muscles were twenty years younger, it might have been a different story. I seemed to be always behind Karin. Somehow women always seem to have more stamina when it comes to endurance, as I tried my best to follow.

We spent much of the time walking the bikes up the steep incline. Karin was swearing at the heat. It was my fault for eating such a large breakfast!

At the top it levels off for a while and you get to catch your breath as you ride through fields of wildflowers. The trail then continues up again, although not quite as steep along the side of the hill. There you could look down into Salt Lake Valley

We came to a junction and decided to continue on up and along the Bonneville Shoreline trail until we reached Dry Creek, from there you can fly down the hill back to civilization. That’s where she turns to me and say’s “Why don’t you go first you like to go faster anyways!” In my mind I knew what she meant. When it comes to downhill most guys tend to leave common sense behind, as they put the bike into the highest gear and begin building up speeds approaching Mach One.

This would explain all the bruises our oldest child has when he returns from a mountain bike ride. Never the less I made it down with no injuries. Karin just called it “Reckless”

Today I just worked a little on the larger Grand Canyon painting, adding some light to the right wall edge and fixing up the rock field below it. It was too red before. I also added a log to the left sand bank.

Richard Boyer

Thursday

So I added the sand bar and worked on the water. The crit session is tonight so I'll see what they all think about it. We had Victors 8th grade Graduation today, followed by lunch at the local brew pub. Yeah I know, but its one of Victor's favorite ! They do killer Buffalo burgers.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday

I broke out the larger Grand Canyon painting today and started up on it again. Seems like a long time ago that I did anything with this one. The river trip took up a week and then I had another weeks worth of paintings from the trip to finish up.

Still have not decided if I want the long sand bar in front. I'll work more on the water tomorrow and see how it all comes together.

Richard Boyer

Tuesday, June 1st

I'm back in the studio working away and watching the rain come down. We had a nice relaxing Memorial weekend, well maybe not yesterday. My wife determined that we should all go on a family hike.

Black mountain was the destination.

So off we went at 11:30 in the morning after a rather large breakfast. We drove up Terrace Hills Drive and parked the car at the end. There the trail winds its way up close to the ridge line. From there you have your choice of doing the level path of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail or continuing on up farther to follow the ups and downs along the crest of the ridge until you reach the final steep climb to the summit.

I should make a point for those of you not from Utah. The Bonneville Shore line trail is not along a shore by any means. They got the name from an old fresh water lake that covered the west back eons ago in geological time. Now a days the trail runs a thousand feet above the valley floor, offering spectacular views of the city below.

Lina was with us and we ended up taking a few breaks to look at the flowers and rocks. The wild flowers were out in abundance, covering the hill side and as usual I forgot the camera!

We had lunch on top and looked out over the views in every direction. Five hours later we were back at the car with tired leg muscles.


I worked on one last painting from the river trip. We were just coming up to our first campsite and had this great view of the rocks bathed in sunlight.

Richard Boyer