Fresh Green Bike and Not All Who Wander

Photo: "Fresh Green Bike"; Poured Watercolor and Ink, 11" x 14"

It's been awhile since I've updated this site.  I had a life change that hit me sideways.  I went into work one day earlier this month and was told that "we were parting ways", and just like that I found myself unemployed.  It was a complete surprise because I LOVED doing the job and thought I was doing it very well.  I'm still trying to get back up and have found that I've had more time to do a little painting now between job searching.

Photo: "Not All Who Wonder...."; Watercolor and Ink, 12" x 12"

"Not All Who Wander..." is one of my favorite sayings.  This I added my one one line at the end to have a bit of fun with it.  I even had a 12" x 12" white frame on hand to finish it off.

Photo: Framed and ready to go... this is available for purchase.

Thank you for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may have!

Blue Country Cyclist

This was a commissioned piece that I just finished yesterday.  I'm currently working on another couple of pieces trying to get done before Christmas.  Oh, the stress of painting deadlines. This painting had 5 preliminary drawings that it went through before it became this finished piece.  I'm glad to say that Tim was very pleased with the finished painting.  He wanted something to remind him of cycling on RAGBRAI but in blues/grays with less riders.  LOL!

Photo:"Blue Country Cyclist"; watercolor on 12" x 16" paper
Commissioned Piece

You may notice in the sky of the finished piece a subtle cloud face.  That was added in the final painting and was an idea that we (Tim & myself) and thrown back and forth.  It's loosely based on Tim's face.

The last Prelim drawing for this piece.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comment you may have!

A Bit of a Rorschach Version....

Here's the latest of my of the "Live, Laugh, and Ride" Bike Series.  This one has a bit of a Rorschach Ink Block effect.  I had a bit of fun in putting this one together and figured a bicycle crank as a dominate center piece to the artwork.  Then, the symmetry of the two bikes off to the side, a true cyclist will see the bicycles in this Rorschach test! LOL  Here it is... (Please forgive my lousy photographing skills.  It's darker in one corner and I couldn't quite get the lighting right.)

"Live, Laugh, and Ride 3": Watercolor on 15" x 20" paper.

I may play with using different colors on this same type of lay out.  Who knows?! :)  I welcome any feedback you may have and thanks for stopping by!

Same But Different

I opted to a bike for a change.  It’s very similar to the “Live, Laugh, and Ride” that I did a while back.  I mixed it up a little, put cloud shapes in and used a different bike.  It made me think of riding through the air on a bike.  Awww...There's nothing like that feeling!  So this has the same saying in this painting but with a different look.  It was a nice little easy break after doing a commissioned piece that I had struggled with.  Here’s “Live, Laugh, and Ride – Number 2”....

I welcome any feedback you may have.  Thanks for stopping by!

Live, Laugh, and Ride...

After getting quite a few comments on Face Book about "Enjoy the Ride" watercolor painting I did for my living room.  I thought it might be fun to do another bicycle painting with a quote/saying.  I was rather inspired by a quick photo that I took of a bike on my long road trip the year before last.  It was a bicycle that was chained up to a tree along a shopping area in Bend, OR.  I have fond memories of that day, watching paddle boarders along the river and hanging out a local pub that night listening to local musicians.  A wonderful day on the road exploring the USA.  With those fond memories, I took that photo and turned it into a warm, sunny piece of bike artwork.  I think that the quote/saying fit with my memories of that day.  I call this watercolor.."Live, Laugh, and Ride..."

"Live, Laugh, and Ride..."; Watercolor on 16" x 20" Paper.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any feedback you may have.

Enjoy the Ride!

About 3 months ago, I moved into a new place and I'm now finally getting to a point where I want to start hanging things on the wall.  It's not that I have a shortage of paintings to hang on my walls.  But sometimes it's nice to have a variety of things on the wall that have cute sayings or to have other unique items among the paintings on the wall.  Well, in the search for some cute quotes or sayings that I could find on-line for my wall, I found a shortage when it came to bicycles among the quotes.  Most of the quotes had a bicycle and the quote of "Enjoy the Ride!"; which was fine but I just wanted something a bit more.

And so, with drying time happening during a commissioned piece that I'm currently working on, I decided to do my own cute quote with bicycles.  The nice thing is that this way I could plan what I wanted said, choose the colors, and put as much bicycle in it as I wanted.  Little by little, it came together.  I have always enjoyed the quote that "Life is a journey", and I kind of like the "Enjoy the Ride" with the bicycle.  So with those two quotes in mind I laid in a background of a combination of flat washes and alternative methods.  I used a bit of scotch tape here and there to remove color; along with some masking fluid.  I used objects to apply the masking and just kind of played around with it.  I had fun and this is what came of it....

"Enjoy the Ride"; Watercolor on 12" x 18" paper.

I was pretty happy with this and I think it should look good in my living room decor.  Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may like to share.