Blog 2004

We haven't had rain for nearly ten weeks until this second week in October so I'm not complaining. However, I wasn't able to do another segment of the ORP. Instead, today I opted just to ride on a local road here in Crawford County. Even with the slightly overcast skies today, I think you can see the vivid colors of the autumn landscape. I'm just always surprised not to see more bicyclists riding along these relatively deserted roads. Oh well, more fun for me! Three sketches today, no paintings.

Party Barge at French Island

This first week in October, I rode from Patronville to French Island. It was a pleasant ride on up and down roads. The fall colors are beginning to come out. The dry cornstalks in the fields made a shushing sound that only those who have lived in rural areas can appreciate.

French Island is a shanty town marina on the river. Most of the more established cottages are up on stilts, much like Alton. All of the campers next to the river had been pulled out with the threats of recent flooding from hurricane Ivan upstream. One of the most unusual sights was an old mobile home on stilts. The Party Barge at left was also interesting. I'm told that the fellow who owns it hires bands, takes it out into the river and allows his guests to party, including walking the plank and using the slide. I also made a sketch for future reference. Stay tuned.

September 2004

Barge at Owensboro

The last ride of the month was from Rockport to Owensboro. The roads were good and I found a nice, quiet country road part of the way. The remaining miles were on US231 which is heavily trafficked. I just held steady until I came to the Owensboro bridge and the sign that said, "Welcome to Kentucky." I decided to take a gravel service road to the right, which took me beneath the bridge and right to the river. This is the benefit of riding a hybrid with fatter tires. The area had been underwater a week ago due to rains upstream from hurricane Ivan. Now it was pretty dry in most places, some others were wet and swampy smelling. I completed this pencil sketch of a barge parked at the river bank with a tug. Then I did a quick watercolor sketch of the bridge above. It has a nice curve to it so the spans were interesting to paint. This needs some more work but I hope to get that image up in a week or two, along with several others in progress.

I biked from Grandview to Rockport this third week of September. As I was unloading my bike and equipment from the van, a woman who was exercise walking around the parking lot came up to me on her second turn around. "Are you Kit?" she asked? Yes, I replied. "Well, that was my summer kitchen you painted!" We had a nice chat and she told me how thrilled she was to see her place in the paper, also she gave me the history of her home. It was quite fun to make the connection. I hope to meet a lot more interesting folks along my travels. Then I pedaled on to Rockport. The power plant is awesomely huge and the bridge is beautiful. I did a sketch of both from the river front park. They'll be appearing on these pages soon.

Roger McBain's article about my Art Odyssey came out in the Evansville Courier and Press on Sunday, September 19th. I was thrilled and have received many interesting responses. Thanks, Justin, for not showing my double chins! ;-)

Labor Day Weekend found me biking with the Indiana Bike Fest and National Bicycle Rally out of Jasper, Indiana. There were over 200 riders from all over the country. Despite the heat, the bicyclists loved the paved country roads and beautiful rolling hills. Many were quite surprised at the challenges that Southern Indiana held. I biked 120 miles in total! Not bad for a middle-aged lady.

More biking / art trips coming up this month. Stay tuned.

August 2004

I had the pleasure to take a mini-vacation to Chicago and bike along the waterfront and in Grant Park. What a gorgeous city! Spotlessly clean and everyone was friendly. I think I'll have to put up a new category of biking paintings called "Miscellaneous Rides." I gave away the only waterfront painting I did but expect I'll be doing some more from my notes and pictures.

Stone Lion at Tell City Court House Lawn

This is one of the stone lions on the courthouse lawn at Tell City, Indiana. On the 23rd I biked with Roger McBain of the Evansville Courier and Press. He is doing a story on my adventures or misadventures as a biker / artist. We had a good time although the day was hotter'n Hades. We also spent some time touring around Troy, looking for a 60 foot tall statue of Christ of the Ohio. Couldn't find it but I'm sure we were close.

On the 30th, I met with the paper's photographer, Justin Rumbach, in Troy and biked to Grandview. This is a quaint little river town. I painted an old brick summer kitchen. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, in this part of the world, old houses often had summer kitchens when people used to cook over wood. This was to keep the heat out of the house in the summer. Many were small, just large enough for a stove and a side table. Some were quite large. My studio is in the summer kitchen of my old farm house and it is quite large with two rooms below and a full attic above. I've heard that the hired hands slept up there.

On this day, there were cats and kittens all around. One I saw sleeping in a flowerpot. Another kept trying to drink from my water container. I left a note for the owner who was not around but I'm sure all the neighbors reported seeing some strange artist outside.

July 2004

No biking and art. ;-( Just getting ready for Summer Art Fair at Ann Arbor which is a grueling week. However, it was successful in the fact that I won Best of Show for Painting (overall). The only rides were ten miles one that I do several times a week just to blow out the cobwebs. Maybe next month.

June 2004

I was out on several painting excursions this month. The fields and roadsides were full of wildflowers - daylillies, wild roses and sweetpeas. One day I saw a baby fawn. Another day I put my easel spikes to the test on a very windy hillside. I expected the canvas to go flying but it didn't.

April 2004

This was one of my first biking rides with loaded panniers. Notice how I'm perched on the edge of the creek and the road. It doesn't take much room for a bicycle studio. Also notice that I'm using a watercolor easel attachment here. However, I've found out that with quarter sheet size paintings, a regular travel easel will suffice. You can't see in the photo, but the woods were just greening and the redbud was creating a purple haze. I saw six cars go by in three hours.

This page was last updated on October 25, 2009