Bicyclistic

This collection of paintings form a pool from which prizes can be chosen in one of the frequent giveaway competitions I run here on Bicyclistic.

Scroll down to see the latest competition. To keep informed of the free painting giveways, follow this blog by feed, subscribe to updates by email, or follow me on Twitter

I intend to add to the pool on an ongoing basis, but as the paintings are also for sale, the pool could get smaller too.

Derryreel 2
€75

Still Life Sq.s
€225

Men Reading
€140

Derryreel 4
€75

Men in C. 2
€130

She’s K. Special
€170

Orange Squares
€265

Derrynane Bay
€150

Sq. Outlines
€135

Men in C. 3
€130

White Sheep
€70

72nd St 3
<€225

72nd St 4
€225

P. Dot Plant II
€84

The Races
€70

Mini Bay
€45

Mini Lake
€45

Kurt
€84

Tina
€70

Parade Ring
€70

Punter
€70

Chimp
€30

Zebra
€30

Camel
€30

Boxing ‘love
€84

Cloon Pillar
€70

Rathdown Slab
€70

The Plains III
€84

Rook, Flight 3
€70

Dog & Ball
€70

Hungarian Hse
€69

F7
€84

F5
€84

Caherlehillan
€70

Gandhi 1
€40

Gandhi 2
€40

• Howth SOLD
• Tyn Nad Vltavou SOLD
• White Cottage $99 SOLD
• Men in Conversation I $89 WON
• House, Trees $99 WON
• Blue Road €70 SOLD
• Owl €30 SOLD
• Walrus WON
• Three Cottages, Green Fields $45 SOLD
• Kenmare, White SOLD
• Panda $45 WON
• Connemara Trees, small $99 SOLD
• Three Cottages $45 SOLD
• Bear WON
• Three Cottages, Turf SOLD
• Two Cottages SOLD
• Butterfly WON
• Duck, Flying WON
• Fidel SOLD
• Fish Drying, Tap Man $125 WON

Current Giveaway: Q. 10 [Until June 1, 2011] How many miles did I cycle in my solo trip across America?

Previously:
Q. 9 [24 March, 2010] How many birds & sheep will be in the paintings I exhibit at the 2010 Irish Blog Awards? - Finished Answer & Winner
Q. 8 [7 October, 2009] Of where is that painting-in-progress? - Finished - Answer & Winner

Q. 7 [September 4, 2009]. Name that painting in progress - Finished - Answer & Winner.

Q. 6 [June 12] Name those animals - Finished

Q. 5 [April 24] How many rooks in a painting in Rathmines Festival exhibition? - Finished - Winner

Q. 4 [Mar 9, 2009] Identify That Painting - Finished - Winner

Q. 3 [Feb 16, 2009] See Irish Blog Awards ‘09 - my show - Finished - Winner

Q. 2 [Feb 6, 2009] In USD what is the total price of the 3 most expensive paintings that have sold while posted on IrishKC ? - Finished - Winner

Q. 1 [Jan 28, 2009] Finished

• By popular request, Dog-dog is now on Twitter. Long-Grass has no plans to follow suit.
• My background on Twitter made it onto the Top 10 list for January on the Twitter Backgrounds Gallery, and the #1 for Fine Arts Theme
• My Irish KC made it from the very long nominated list to the (not too long) longlist for the Best Arts & Culture Blog (sponsored by Poetry Ireland) in the 2009 Irish Blog Awards
• My American Hell made it onto the longlist for Best Humour Blog (sponsored by Beecher Networks) at the 2009 Irish Blog Awards
• I’m continuing to add to my paintings available as prints. To date, 8 more Irish paintings have been added to the original 10

Currently almost 200 of my paintings are available as prints and/or cards. Matted, mounted, and photographic prints as well as prints on canvas and framed prints are available for most of these paintings. The service is provided by RedBubble who print your order in whichever is nearer to you of the US, UK, and Australia so as to minimise shipping costs.

Most prints are categorized as Irish towns, Irish Landscapes, or the Birds/Wires series:

Irish Towns

Landscapes

Birds/Wires

Killarney

Kinsale II

Beehive Hut

Ruined House

Doolin

Cobh

Moone Cross

The Lodge

Green Fields

Galway Street

Cliffs of Moher I

Newgrange Kerbstone

Connemara Panorama

Westport

Of Clare

Gallarus Stone

Listowel

Donegal Stone 1

 

For producing my prints I chose RedBubble - and ImageKind before them - because other artists that I trusted were using them and I am happy with their quality.

New Prints
More prints will continue to be made available.

Older Paintings
Some of my older paintings (in the region of 20 years ago) I do not have good enough quality photos of to make prints from, so they won’t become available as prints, but all new paintings are now photographed as I finish them with a view to making prints.

A couple of weeks ago, before Walter of sxoop created his very cool mosaic-making tool for Twitter followers, I cadged together a mosaic of some of my favourite Twitter followers and followees using Hahlo and a very old version of Paint Shop Pro.

Then I sent the mosaic to Le Craic, and not much later he sent me my twug, my very own twitter mug. Are you on it?

Much as I wish I’d thought of it, the idea was Le Craic’s, and nope the twug is not dynamic - so when people change their avatars the avatars don’t change on the mug.

The twug therefore is a snapshot of a perfect time online, a time we all know won’t last, a time before you dropped so many followees and went back to life, back to reality.

[Update: You can now order your own twug from Le Craic]

To celebrate the launch of Bicyclistic I thought I’d give away a painting.

I’ll ask a question and the person with the winning answer can choose a painting for free from a pool of 13 paintings, all of which are currently priced at 45USD.

[ Update: Competition over. Scroll down to see winner ]

[Update eile: See Prize Pool of Paintings (and Question 2) ]

The winner can choose 1 of the 9 available mini-animals such as ‘Bonobo’ pictured here. (That link will take you over to IrishKC - don’t be alarmed; I just can’t be bothered copying all the images over to here).

Or the winner can choose 1 of the 4 available mini-landscapes such as ‘3 Cottages, Green Fields’ pictured here.

These are small paintings, and I post them in an archival sleeve with a temporary mount on archival matting board. You can see a photo on IrishKC of some examples I sold earlier.

The Question
In 1996 I set off from Boston on a bicycle. On IrishKC I have been serialising excerpts from the journal I kept of that cycle across America. The most recent part of the journal I posted was #71 Arizona. What is the total number of miles cycled from the start of the trip up to and including part 71?

[Note: I had #72 instead of #71 - it was just a typo as the most recent part posted & linked to is 71 ]

Leave your answer in the comments below. I’ll shut it off at 8pm (Irish time) on Friday. The closest answer wins. In the event of a tie I’ll go with whoever answered first. You only get one entry, and other common sense rules apply.

If geography isn’t your strong point, you could always find the most recent journal entry where the cumulative total is mentioned, and then add on the miles for all the days since then. As I don’t necessarily publish daily mileage totals, that’s a lot harder than it sounds.

And now I have to head off to the studio to find out the answer - which I have on a piece of paper in a box somewhere.

UPDATE: Competition is now closed.

We Have a Winner!

Here’s a photo of my contemporaneous notes I made of the figures my trusty cyclometer was telling me I was cycling. The latest journal entry posted on Irish KC is “#71 Arizona”, which documents leaving Lordsburg in New Mexico and finishing up 80 miles later in Safford in eastern Arizona. The cumulative total miles cycled from Boston to Safford, AZ is ringed below:

With 4,670 I make it we have a winner just 12 miles out and pipping the next person by a mere 5 miles. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I make it that TheChris D, the very first entrant, wins. Hard luck especially to David, Manuel, & Xavier Onassis, who all were close behind. And thanks a million to everyone for participating. I will definitely do that again (indeed I deliberately blacked out the next entries just in case I use the same method - the cycle continues westward and I’ll resume posting journal excerpts of it.)

My studio is a loft in a stableyard in Dublin West. Close to the border with Kildare, it is located on a country estate overlooking the Liffey.

Update [March 2010]: See an audio slideshow video of me in my studio

Update [August 2009]: An album of photos of the interior and exterior of my studio is now posted.

I work best with plenty of space, and as this photo from November 2008 shows with my stuff mostly still in the boxes that I packed in America over a year earlier, my studio does have space.

But even without unpacking most stuff, I do tend to fill the space fairly quickly. This was taken on Saturday gone, but it’s been looking like this for 2 months now:

I’ve partly erected my art tent in there for, em, organisational reasons. It’s 10ft x 10ft and not as dark as this suggests:

Like most boxes of art materials, my boxes of art books are not yet unpacked:

That’s plexiglass in the loading doorway; it left one windy night in an Omen-like flight. The landlord is currently making a heavy duty door. He has put that internal wall and door in since I moved in, and installed a shower and toilet on the other side.

This is the sink corner, still awaiting the sink, but it has all those groovy pipes whatever they do. Please don’t tell me what the pipes do - I hate pipes as much as I hate wires.

There is a sink in the jax, which has made making tea a lot handier than heading outside to the taps in the yard, but a deeper sink specifically for the studio is on the way.

Much as I like the location of the studio, and its windows, I spend practically no time looking out them instead preferring to walk around the studio and looking at paintings in progress from different distances:

The plan is to make it hospitable for visitors, as quite a few people have expressed an interest in visiting. It will be a lot more manageable when all the boxes of art materials are unpacked and the contents shelved. I have a couch going in, around which I will organise the art display bins, art books, and drinks cabinet.

I’ll let you know when it’s in good shape for visiting.

Oh, and when I say drinks cabinet, I mean cooler.

Have a look at the beautiful exterior of the studio and the stableyard it’s situated in.

See Also: Paintings