A Harley, Highway 25, and a Painting

One of my favorite motorcycle rides in the bay area is Highway 25 south of Hollister, California. It is a great motorcycle road out in the middle of nowhere with wide sweeping curves and long straightaways. We usually do it 3 or 4 times a year. I have actually done several short videos on the ride you can find on youTube HERE and HERE.

The area is a constant terrain of farmlands, barns, old ranch houses, abandoned buildings and wide open spaces…a painters paradise. When we ride, it is usually a group affair and very few stops. Every time I go, I tell myself I am going to bring the RV down sometime and just paint for a few days.

On a ride we did several weeks ago, it was just Pete and me, so we stopped quite a bit so I could take pictures along the way. My pastoral scenes are becoming more popular, and I wanted to do a big California Hills type scene. Today, I started a 30×40 which is a composite of several photo studies I did on the ride. I won’t give you a day-by-day account like the last big Yosemite painting, but below are a few pictures from the ride, and the sketch in of the painting.

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