Rusty Bikes

I've started a series of old, beat up bikes. There's something sad and poetic about a bike, or any machine come to that, which has outlived it's usefulness and has been abandoned by it's owner in a shed or a corner of a garden. I love painting rust and heaps of rubbish so this is going to be an interesting project for me. The second one, "Chinese Bike" was adapted with kind permission from a photo by a young Frenchman living in Japan. Some great photography on his blog.
http://blog.meow.fr/author/tigroumeow

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Abbaye de Valmagne

Crikey, I'm a bit behind with this! Just a quicky to mention one of my favourite places on this earth, the Abbaye de Valmagne, situated about ten kilomètres from where I live. It's rather beautiful and very peaceful. It's one of those places that seems to give off good vibes and makes me feel good. I often ride by when I'm out on the bike, and a few weeks ago I happened to have my camera with me when it was fairly early in the morning and everything was covered with a soft pinkish light, which gave the buildings an even warmer, friendlier aspect than usual.
http://www.valmagne.com/

Pic St Loup

Finally got round to riding up around the Pic St Loup last week, and returned yesterday to do the same loop of 68 kilometres but in the other direction. The Pic St Loup is a mountain, 658 metres high, poking up out of the plain about 25 kilometres north of Montpellier. There's no road to the top, but you can walk up it, and I have many times in the past, but the rather beautiful and desolate country to the north of the Pic makes great cycling terrain. I took the bike in the car and parked at Les Matelles and began my ride from there. The interesting stuff starts at the next village, St Mathieu, where the road starts to climb up between the Pic and it's sister, the Mont Hortus and at the top of the climb there's a spectacular view looking back towards St Mathieu. A fast descent then, and turn off the main St Martin de Londres road and head north to the very pretty village of Notre Dame de Londres. These back roads are very quiet and lonely. You can easily ride for ten or twenty kilometres without seeing another vehicle and could easily be abducted by aliens without anyone ever knowing! No flat roads here but constant short sharp climbs and descents. Pass through Ferrieres and Pompignan where there's a good sharp climb through a series of hairpin bends and you arrive on top of a desolate plateau that's not far off the height of the Pic which can be clearly seen on the horizon almost as if you could touch it. After the straight road which crosses the plateau, there's a long zig-zag descent down to Valflaunès and civilisation, then it's easy roads back to Les Matelles and my car. Once again I realise how lucky I am to live in such a great place with such superb bike riding available.

Eddy

Finally got round to doing one of the great Eddy Merckx, who tops all the lists of greatest cyclist ever. Everyone loved his constant attacking style and his palmarès speaks for itself. 
60x60 cms acrylic on canvas - I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out.

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Yesterday's Ride

Did my 68k loop yesterday. Horrendously strong wind, especially at the tops of the climbs. Felt great to be out in the sunshine though. The vines are almost fully in leaf now and are that vivid late spring green. I like the sort of patch-work shape of the vineyards and the lines of the vines chopping across in different directions.

New "Sprint"

Just finished SPRINT #4. Probably more 'painterly' than the others so far. Doesn't show up too well on this small image, but there's alot of 'scratchy' brush work all over it when you see the real thing. Think I'll try a big one soon in oils, see what happens.


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Yesterday's ride

Got out on my local 56 kilometre loop yesterday. For once, we've had decent rainfall here over the last weeks, and on my recent rides I noticed alot of wild flowers, sometimes counting as many as fifteen different kinds, although I could only identify a few by name. Spring is the best season here, green and almost lush, and all the better for knowing that in a few weeks it will all be burnt brown by the Mediterranean sun. Anyway, I took my camera with me and took snaps of most of the varieties I saw, poppies, wild roses and wild honeysuckle amongst them. The last pic is of one of my favourite stretches of road here, wild, high and mostly traffic free. The mountain on the horizon is the Pic Saint Loup.