original acrylic painting with female riding bicycle with 3 cats and 1 dog on a trailer

“She rode where sense would not follow”
24″ x 30″ Golden OPEN Acrylics
In the dimming years of the 1890s, Clara Whitcombe rode the prairie as if escaping a life already lost to her. The road bent unnaturally beneath her wheels, and the wind whispered names she no longer answered to. She traveled with rescued creatures, fragile witnesses to her belief that broken things deserved second chances. Her companions had found her just as she had found them—cast aside and searching for somewhere to belong. Each mile carried them toward a rumored sanctuary where unwanted souls might finally rest. She never turned back, unsure whether she was moving toward freedom or simply farther into the dream she could not wake from.

This painting started with a vision of one of my “steamfolk” characters would ride a custom Penny Farthing that has a trailer that contains animals that are in need of attention. In general, I just throw out my concept on paper to get a general idea of what I want…. I then work out the details as I paint.

This is the image being projected onto my cradled board. The nice thing about this technique is it lets you easily position the character where you want it…. and you can also scale the size of it to see how it will fit.

Video of the progress via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1536053997671581

Here are some close-up images of the finished piece:

I hope you like it and be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and X (links at the bottom of this page) to get the latest news and progress of my art projects!

Cheers!