A Dream Begins...

Soon I’ll be starting the first leg of I’ve come to refer to as a “US Tour”.  It’s been a dream that’s been at the back of mind for years.  When I explain what I’m doing, I’ve had all kinds of reactions from surprise, to being an inspiration, to “you’re crazy”, and “you’ve got some balls, girl!”(My boss)  I’ve even had it referred to as a “female mid-life crisis”. (Thank you Popette)

Photo- "Blue Moon Garden"; Oil painting on 16" x 20" wrapped canvas. SOLD!

So what is it that I’m exactly doing you might ask.  I’m about to enter into a new exploration of the USA’s lower states – just my car, my bike, & myself.  Basically, I’m quitting my job and entering into a nomadic lifestyle.  The plan is to do this for 2 years and to travel at random.  There’s no set time though I am thinking of starting in the Pacific Northwest and heading south along the coast to start with.  Yeah, maybe I am crazy.  I’ve been saving for 4 years and am downsizing to a car.  I’m really doing what is the opposite of people when they reach their 40’s.

But I want to travel the US and see sites, landmarks, National Parks, and etc. while I’m still young enough and physically able to enjoy it.  I had originally planned on being 42 years old when I started this voyage.  But I got side tracked with bicycle accidents and other things.  I wasn’t able to saving as much as I thought I could and now three years later things have kind of aligned and fallen into place.

You'll be able to follow my progress of this adventure on my other blog... The Allgood Life; just click here.  I still will be posting my works of art that I will be creating while on my adventure here.  Thanks for visiting! 

Ollie Oxen Free!

I've been in the process of preparing to move and have had my hands mostly full with packing since getting back from RAGBRAI but I did manage to get a watercolor done of a friend's dog.  This is Ollie and he is a Jack Russell Terrier.  He is a real cutie and he knows it too!  He also HATES to wear sweaters but his Mom seems to love to put him in sweaters during our snowshoeing excursions.  I feel like he's saying,"Mom, this sweater? ... Please take it off before ALL the other dogs see me!  They are going to think I'm a sissy.  PLE-ASSSSE!"  This is my first attempt at doing a dog in watercolor and I think it turned out rather well.  My friend was pleasantly pleased with it too.  Here he is... Ollie Oxen Free!....

"Ollie Oxen Free"; Watercolor on 10" x 13" Paper.

Here's Ollie in a candid shot just before Halloween this last year.  Diana Ross- Eat your heart out!

Photo- Ollie putting Diana Ross to shame!

Thanks for visiting and I would LOVE to hear any feedback you may have!

On My Way Back ...

Tonight, I'm writing this as I sit in my hotel room in Cheyenne, WY.  I'm on my way back to Utah and have had a week of ups and downs.  I first left for my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; last Thursday evening.  The plan was to do a bit of visiting with family and then do RAGBRAI. 

Well, even the best laid plans seem to change.  I did some visiting and started RAGBRAI.  I managed the first three days of RAGBRAI.  The worst three days as far as heat and humidity that RAGBRAI has ever seen in its 40 years (go figure!).  All three days were 99 or above with one day climbing up to 104 degrees with 80% humidity.  Oh and did I mention there were winds that were up to 20 mph too?  These were some tough days and I really found that the humidity was getting to me. 

But I will say that those three days of RAGBRAI were amazing!  It was a sea of bicycles as far as the eye could see along the wonderful hilly landscape of Iowa's corn and soybean fields.  There were people all along the Iowa roads that were cheering you on; some were selling water, cookies, or almost everything.  Some were not selling but giving water out for free, or offering to douse you with their hose, or even others were handing out frozen pops.  Main streets in small Iowa towns were closed down just to bicycle traffic and filled up with vendors offer to sell food or wares to the cyclists that came through the town.  It was just AMAZING!  I don't know how else to describe it.

Photo: Boys-N-Cars watercolor I did of my nephews for a Father's Day present. 
The youngest one here is the one with dark hair.

My second day was the worst.  I had received a phone call from my little brother the night before that my youngest nephew had passed away due to complications after a surgery.  He was only 13 years old.  I was rather a bit of a basket case that day and only managed to ride 47 miles of the 85 miles that I should have rode.  My head and heart just were not in it.  I found I could not keep food down and when you are riding that is NEVER a good sign to have.  I ended up getting SAG'd in that day.  I did manage the next day's ride but then had to call for help when I was brain dead trying to find the host house.  The combo of riding 84 miles with 104 degree humid heat just left me STUPID.

Wednesday night I managed to get a ride back to my mom's.  I had opted not to ride on Thursday to give my body a bit of a break but I also needed to be back for a viewing(Friday) and funeral(Saturday).  That basically meant that RAGBRAI was over for me.  But I needed to be else where.



 

Porch No. 101

This porch belongs to my good cycling buddies; Bee & Peter.  They asked me about a little over a year ago to do a painting of their house/porch.  I really thought I had managed a bit of a coup when I had them pose on their porch with their dog Astra for No. 100 of the Salt Lake City Porches Project.  I thought it was the perfect way to finish the project and also did a painting of their porch too.  I figured it was all done in one full swoop. 

Then after the January showing of the 100 SLC Porches, they approached me and asked to do a painting of their porch with no people from the front.  I will admit that I dragged my heels.  I was rather burned out on porches by that point.  So, more recently I was approached by another cycling bud to do their porch, I thought that I had better take care of Bee & Peter's porch first.  So here it is....

"Porch No. 101"; Poured Watercolor on 10" x 14" Paper.

When I asked how they wanted me to paint it; they said they wanted me to choose.  They did admit to liking my poured watercolors.  Here's one of the photos that I worked off of for their porch.

As you can see, I did a very loose form and played with colors to represent their porch.  I studied the different times of day with the directions of light play.  I also had several different times of year that the photos were taken from.  I will admit I'm partial to the Fall and liked playing with the bare branches of the tree.  Thus, I ended up with the top poured watercolor.  They seemed pleased with adding it to their painting collection. 

I'm currently having a sale on the available 100 Salt Lake City Porches of 25% off.  I'm calling it the RED HOT Summer Sale.  It makes sense when the temps are as high as they've been lately.  You can scroll through the page to look at those available by clicking here.  I welcome any feedback you may have and thanks for visiting.  Now on to the next porch for me!

Fun with Water...

I'm still working on catching up with some commissions.  I thought I would have more time with the 4th of July Holiday this last week, but it didn't seem to turn out that way.  But in the meantime, I thought I would post this fun watercolor that I finished up last week.  It features a cycling buddy's daughter and she looks like she's having fun.  I call it "Water Hose Play".  Here is it...

"Water Hose Play"; Watercolor on 10" x 14" Paper.

I was trying to think of cooling thoughts last week with the high temperatures.  I thought this was the perfect subject to be working on.  Enjoy!  I would love to hear your feedback and thanks for visiting!

A Basketted Purple Bike...

I am currently working on a couple of commissioned porch pieces.  Yes, I'm doing a bit of catching up and while I'm doing that I thought I would share a piece that I put on my bike art page but I never did a little write up here about it.  Part of the reason was that I barely finished it before Little Red and then it sold quickly.  Here it is...

"Basketted Purple Bike"; Watercolor on 6" x 8" Paper.

It was one of those quick little paintings I did in the evening while watching TV.  A fellow bicycle club member bought the painting and asked that I frame it in a black frame with matting.  That's what I did and here it is framed and ready for their wall...

"Basketted Purple Bike" framed.

They were very pleased.  I thought that the mint green really brought out some of the green undertones and made the bike pop.  I hope to have some porch commissions to reveal here soon.

A Commission for Mom...

My mom recently decided to remove a shelf in the kitchen-dining room area.  She asked for me to do an oil painting of flowers that was large enough to cover the place where the shelf had been.  She gave the measurements and requested a wrapped canvas.  She didn't want to worry about framing and I think she liked the idea of a more modern unframed painting to update the area.  From there, she gave me ideas on what she would like but always mentioned that she was sure that whatever I came up with she would be happy with.  Thanks mom!  No pressure what-so-ever.

First she sent me a few magazine pages of ideas... A Van Gogh of flowers which she explained, she didn't like the actual flowers.  She considered them too child-like but she did like the green wispy strokes in it.  Then, there was a photo of yellow tulips taken in her dining room.  She wanted tulips.  Then, she included a couple of other pages with flowers that she would like to have in the painting. 

Then, she included a diagram of a certain degree...

She wanted to keep to yellows, greens, and purples with a bit of pinks in there too.  She kept an emphasis on keeping it nice light and airy.  Now, I will put a disclaimer here.  I'm not really a flower type of painting gal.  Buildings and bicycles are more my type of thing that I like to paint.  Flowers are a different territory altogether.  I will say I struggled with this for awhile.  I took a bit more time than usual on the under painting.  I did several layers with an iridescent gold and two different yellows.  Then before I started to lay in the actual flowers of the painting.  I painted in the green wispy things.  Here's what I had...

Next, I did some sketches of flowers on paper and played with arranging them on the canvas.

There was a selection of different flowers that I threw in that I thought might look nice with the other flowers she requested; irises, primrose and lavender.  I layed out the drawings on the canvas to get a feel for what looked good together and what would fit and still be light and airy too.  Then I sketched the general format onto the canvas with the same green paint as the wispy things.

I talked with Mom this last Sunday morning on the phone and explained the general format that I had come up with.  She thought it sounded pretty good.  So I proceeded to paint on Sunday evening and Monday night and this is the finished painting that was produced...

AND I hope that Mom is happy enough to hang it on her wall when I bring it home to her in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in July while I'm there for RAGBRAI.

Happy Father's Day!!

Here's wishing all of you Fathers out there a Happy Father's Day!  I've been waiting before I posted this painting until it arrived at my little brother's home in Iowa.  I did it as a present for him for Father's Day.  I was trying to make it a surprise.  It features my two nephews standing in front of a car at a car show.  Here it is... 

"Boys-N-Cars"; Watercolor on 9" x 11" Paper

I rather got a kick out of how both of them are standing with arms folded; kind of like--"Yeah, we are tough!"  I did this painting in the puddle style of water coloring; mixing all of the colors on the paper.  I also used a limited color pallet-- phthalo blue, phthalo green, and permanent rose with just a bit of meduim yellow to do the skin tones.  I hope you like it little bro!  Happy Father's Day!

Thanks, Silliness & a Winner!

A BIG Thanks for all who swung by my Art Booth at the Little Red Riding Hood Ride.  What a FUN event and such wonderful weather for the most part.  There was a couple of small cloud bursts where I was holding down some tarps to protect some paintings but they were short lived.  It was wonderful being out and having people swing by to view my art.  People from my bike club swung by and were rather surprised that I did anything outside of biking.  It really was a fun experience.  I also managed to sale a few things too!

I managed to get a little silly on Friday night and entered the Little Red Groovy Costume Contest.  They made us get up on stage and dance.  I just wiggled around because I wasn't too sure how a hippie was supposed to dance.  But here's a shot of me on stage in my full regale...

Oh MY!  I think it looks more like I'm doing a Rain Dance!  Maybe that's why there were the cloud burst on Saturday!  Go figure!

AND The winner of the Little Red Raffle is....

Annette T. from Spanish Fork, UT.  Congratulations!!  When she came to pick it up, she told me that she never wins anything.  Well, that's not true anymore and lets hope your luck has changed Annette.  Annette's daughter who did her first 50 mile bike ride ever at Little Red this last Saturday will be receiving the winning painting. Here's the raffled painting that went home with Annette and her daughter...

"Biking with Peace, Love, & Flowers"; Watercolor on 12" x 16" Paper.

FUN Stuff for Little Red Booth!

This week, I've been preparing for the booth that I'm going to have for Little Red which is this next weekend.  For months now, I've been trying to build up on the bicycle paintings that I've had available.  I've also done a few new FUN ideas with a bit of mass producing thanks to the help of some websites and added a few new items other than just original paintings. (Yes, perhaps it would be considered by some as a form of commercializing.)  But I figured on some of these items the original paintings have sold and it would still be fun to share those pieces with others.  (And thus, I'm doing a bit of commercializing.  Please forgive me!)  So with some of that in mind, and with enabling people to purchase some of my art on a variety of new forms these are a few things that I've come up with.
Note Cards...


"A Parked Pink Cruiser" available on a note card.
One among many other paintings that I will have available at the Little Red Booth.
Plus there's some that will be exclusively available just at Little Red!

Tote Bags...

Small Tote Bags-

"Abandoned Girlie Bike" available on a small tote bag. 
Small totes are also available that feature the "Cycle of Red, Yellow & Tyedyed" painting.

Larger Tote Bags-

"Cycle of Red, Yellow & Tyedyed" available in a larger black bottomed tote in my Little Red booth.

Bumper Stickers...

A FUN Bumper sticker featuring the "Cycle of Red, Yellow, & Tye-dyed" painting.

Key Chains...

"A Red Big BAD Wolf" available as a key chain.
I thought this fit right in because the Big BAD Wolf is one of the
popular mascots of the Little Red Riding Hood Ride.

AND
Magnets...

"Old Blue Bayou"- cropped a bit but available in my Little Red booth as a magnet.
Other varieties offered on magnets are "Abandoned Girlie Bike" and
"Shadow Cycling Chalk Creek".

Swing by the Little Red booth in Lewiston, UT

if you get the chance this Friday or Saturday!