Favorite Ride

Ventura Ride, 5"x7", oil on paper
©2014 Cindy Greene

While looking for a photo reference the other day, I came upon a photo I had taken while riding my bike (confession: sometimes I ride with my compact camera around my neck). I was immediately hit with a wave of emotion: "I have to paint this." This is part of the bike path at the north end of Ventura, California, and is probably my favorite bike ride. The photo had some walkers and a bike rider in an awkward position, so after painting the path, I put my favorite riding companion (my husband) in instead.

When one of our daughters was attending college nearby, we frequently stayed in Ventura near the beach path and have ridden this many times. The views are spectacular!

I'm always experimenting with materials, and have enjoyed painting on gessoed watercolor paper lately. While cleaning the garage recently, I found a large number of high quality full sheets of watercolor paper — I can probably paint on gessoed paper for some time! I like the painting surface, but have to experiment with mounting the painting on a panel.