There are those days when things have to get done but, especially when retired, one becomes quite adept at coming up with ways to put off reschedule the “have to” items to allow more spontaneity in one’s life. I have lots of flexibility in my schedule but a few deadlines do loom on the road ahead. The number one “loomer” is a drawing I need to complete for an upcoming exhibition.
It’s the seventh, and final, drawing I am doing in this series and I am having trouble just sitting down and finishing it. It’s sketched out and all I have to do is to “fill it in.” The challenge is that the drawings in this series, all about 15” x 22”, are done by stippling in ink. Each drawing has around 2-million dots which takes me about 60-hours to complete. I thought I was done when I finished the sixth one as the series felt complete and the last drawing makes the statement I am shooting for BUT, on my recent motorcycle trip, while sitting on the side of the road, I spied something that screamed out “Draw Me!!” I shot a photo with my phone and that is what I am working from.
Here’s a teaser of it.
This morning I got up at 5:30 am, as I usually do, and put some time into it but was glad to head to the other house and spend over an hour trimming hedges and such. I stopped to take a photo of a butterfly.
I did some more work on the drawing and then took a break to pull some weeds in the front yard. Today’s weather is fantastic and I just can’t let it go to waste so the next Avoidance Behavior was to get the bike out a take a ride.
I figured that I’d ride about an hour and looked on my map software and came up with a 60-ish mile loop.
It’s one I’ve done many, many times and it is always satisfying. It’s about heading out Hwy 3, taking Shorey Road to Molt Road, Buffalo Trail to Laurel, and River Road back toward Billings. After making the map I decided I’d add a bit and go out to Molt to check on the site of the old building that was removed, the remains of which figured into another drawing of this series.
I headed out and it immediately felt great with the thought of making ink dots on paper now totally behind me. There was only a slight breeze and the temperature was perfect.
I turned off Hwy 3 onto Shorey Road and stopped for the first photo of the ride.
A bit further ahead, more photos.
I got to Molt, turned around, and stopped next to the remains of the old building.
I stopped for a photo opportunity on Buffalo Trail and saw a wild turkey nearby.
It’s a really nice motorcycle road and the hills are so green this time of year.
After that it was a ride to Laurel and a turn on Theil/River Road. This road is a nice cruising ride, about 6 miles long with a couple 35 MPH turns and lots of sweepers. I was 5 miles into it when I saw what appeared to be some lights from emergency vehicles. I slowed and saw that it was a motorcycle incident. A couple guys were standing on the side of the road and they said a rider had gone down. The sheriffs had the road blocked and I could see a few Harleys parked and some guys, and women, in black walking along the embankment. There was a red Harley, full dresser-type, standing up in the weeds but I didn’t see who might be the rider. This section of road is straight and the people walking along side the road, who were looking for something, said something like “he drifted off about here.”
Two trucks in front of me turned around and left. Before long an AMR ambulance came in from the west and blocked the road. Another bike, a Kawasaki Versys riding 2-up, pulled along side me just as a sheriff came up and told us that we’d better turn around as the road would be closed for a while. I turned around, with the Kawa doing the same behind me, and headed back the way I’d come. About 3 miles later I saw another ambulance headed toward the scene, this one coming from Laurel. That looks like there were two people on that Harley.
Back in Laurel I grabbed the slab and headed back to Billings. I have a meet up with the Billings Urban Sketchers at 4:15 and figure that if I ride back to home, grab my backpack with my drawing stuff, I’d be downtown right about 4:25 or so.
The stop at home was quick and I rode downtown to N. 29th and 1st Ave N and saw that a half dozen folks had already taken their places in front of the Zest kitchen supplies store and were sketching the buildings to the east of there. I parked, got my stuff out, and spent the next two hours sketching. This is a pure “flow” activity for me as about the time I laid in the last ink line, 2-hours had flown by. Here what I was working on.
Here’s a closer look at the sketch.
I’ll probably add watercolor to it later.
So, that was today’s ride and I still have lots of dots to make.
Update:
I added watercolors to the sketch.
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