'Victory' | Oil on Canvas | 4.5ft x 6ft
The story of this piece starts almost a year ago when a man by the name of Peter saw one of my paintings hanging up in my husband's bike fit studio at Faster. "Who is the artist?" he asked. "Me," I replied. "No, I know you own it but who is the artist?" "It's me!"
After a few wonderful dinner meetings with Peter and his lovely wife Dena, we started a conversation and a plan on a vision he had for his hallway. His hallway was not just any ordinary hallway - it was the 'bike hallway'. All of his bikes would hang up on the wall after his rides. If you are a cyclist, you understand the concept of keeping your bikes in the house. First of all, they are valuable! Second, bikes are pieces of art; 'functional' art.
Over the course of this past year, Peter's project has been a dream in itself - especially getting to work with someone who has an understanding and appreciation for art.
In art school, we were always given assignments in the form of concepts. It was never, "draw a portrait", it was usually something to do with emotions and things that were not tangible. Peter came to me with a concept and a vision that at first, took me aback as I was overly impressed with his understanding of art. He literally sounded like he too had been to art school!
The first piece, 'Victory' is the largest of the series of 3 that are in progress. It was a challenge as it was my largest oil on canvas so I wanted to make sure everything would be of highest quality and as sturdy as possible due to the size.
Before starting on the large piece, I created smaller sketches for Peter to critique and finally I came up with the sketch that caught his eye and had the final approval. We definitely worked as a team on this painting as I would send him updates and also invite him to look at the painting in person as with the scale, it was a very different experience in person. Just imagine seeing a mural on your iPhone and then standing next to that mural!
The goal of this painting was to express the emotions and colors of victory. As you can tell, even the guys who make the podium are terribly disappointed for not taking the victory! Victory is won in such a split second, yet the rider can express so many emotions of everything they had done to get to that point.
I truly believe that paintings are expressions of dreams. You can imagine it, then see it to visualize it, and finally do it! It was bittersweet to see the painting leave my studio as I had a connection with this piece. Yet, I was so excited it would have the perfect home to hang boldly and hopefully inspire Peter every time he takes his bicycle out of the hallway and onto the road.