Hartsbrook Farm pano

 Another favorite bike destination is this afternoon view of Hartsbrook Farm against the light. I've done it several times, but this time I decided to try a pano of the whole scene. 

Mount Toby

 A nice in just spring day so I biked up to Mount Pollux and did this watercolor sketch of Mount Toby.

Abandoned golf course

 Took the bike out to the abandoned golf course, which was partly flooded from recent rains, and did this sketch of ex-farm buildings, subsequently repurposed by a landscaping company. Actually the golf course is also in the process of being repurposed as a recreational area/solar farm, so may lose its wild and melancholy aspect.

Pen, inkwash, white gouache and white Sakura Gellyroll pen on toned paper.

4" x 6"

Abandoned Getty station

 Today I am thankful that they didn't tear down this skeevy old abandoned Getty station before I had a chance to paint it again. I did a little watercolor sketch back in April and always wanted come back and do a larger oil painting. This what I was able to do in about two hours - the drawing and overall block in.

Abandoned gas station

For years I've been meaning to paint this abandoned gas station on Rte 9 in Hadley MA, and finally biked over there and did this watercolor today. The second pic is what I was able to get down on site before the late afternoon light changed too much; for the final version I amped up the color and added some detail from a photo.

Apple trees on Mt Pollux

I started this one back in April 2019 and wasn't too thrilled with it at the time. I put it up on the studio wall along with its large family of unfinished siblings and just recently returned to it. I'm much happier with it now - I think I needed to acquire the vocabulary to express the way the scene felt to me.

Oil on linen panel 10" x 12" 

Hickory Ridge Barn

I started this back in May and returned to it recently. It is now at the stage I am calling "asympotschke" - when continued daubing produces ever smaller returns while never quite reaching completion. 

Oil on linen panel 6" x 8" 

I used my small cigar box pochade mounted on my bike to paint the view from a local abandoned golf course.

Bike repair stand

 I've always wanted one of those bike repair stands like they have at the bike shop, but couldn't quite justify the investment. I realized that I did have a car bike rack that could be kludged onto a stepladder, and it actually worked pretty well to do my seasonal cleaning and tune up. Reminds me of a Duchampian Dalek.

Little Tinker Hill, Autumn

Last fall I returned to a scene I had painted the previous spring and started a larger version. It was also an experiment with getting a French easel and larger panel onto the back of my bike. I've been working on it and letting it marinate over the winter but I'm calling it done now.

Oil on panel 14.5" x 21.5"

Beaver pond

 Riding on the bike path and came across this scene, both beautiful and melancholy, with the bare ruin’d choirs of dead trees white in the late afternoon light surrounded by marsh grass and lily pads in the beaver pond. I only had one page left in my sketchbook, a failed and partially scrubbed out sketch of my trusty climbing structure, so I attempted take a page from James Gurney’s book, so to speak, and build the new picture on the ruins of the old. I managed to finagle most of the original elements into the new picture except for those lines in the sky.

Cropping to size

 When I started this one I marked off the rectangle I wanted on a larger panel with blue tape. Today I made it official, lopping off the extra with a table saw.

Bike Mishap

I was tooling along by the river when a yellow jacket landed on my hand and stung me. I tried to swat it off but lost control of the bike. Fortunately, I landed on grass and suffered only minor bruises.

This is a reprise of my bike crash episode of 2012:

Perhaps I can make a name for myself as the guy who racks his bike up and draws a picture of it.



A concerned friend asks "Egads! What do you do if you crash and immobilize your left hand!?"

That would be bad! I am forthwith commencing a regimen of practicing right-handed drawing, just in case.