A Long Wait for the Worlds

It is still a long way off until the world rolls into Richmond, Virginia to vie for the 2015 Rainbow Jersey, but all of us cycling fans can't wait.  As you most likely know, I spent last season painting a number of the big tours of the Pro Tour calendar along with some of the shorter 7 day stage races.  This is a painting fantasizing about what it will be like as the Elite Men contest the World Road Championship snaking their way through the streets of my adopted home town.  So while we are all waiting for the start of the 2014 Pro Tour season, enjoy this little guess what the 2015 Worlds will look like (and yes, I did stick Team USA on the front as they rip down Monument Avenue).

New Art Out of the Studio

This is a new piece of art that I just completed in the studio this afternoon.  Unlike most of the art on this blog, this painting was created using Shiva Paintstiks on rag paper and is rather large at 52"x36".  The image is in celebration of the World Championships coming to my adopted home town of Richmond, VA in the United States in 2015.  It has been years since the professional, world tour peloton have swung through the streets of Richmond, but the cycling community is very strong here in the South.  This work will be available through my artist website, www.greigleach.com when I give it a title and load it up.

In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter Protests, the Lee Monument became a focus point for those who found these statues to Confederate "heroes" either a symbol of all that is racist in America, and to those who hold some of those same racist beliefs, a symbol of the "strength of the South"  During that summer, shortly after the death of George Floyd, I decided that I needed to create a painting dealing with the protests and all that they represented.  

As I was thinking about that, it became clear it would be symbolic to create that new work over this painting.  The resulting piece, "I Can't Breathe" has now been included in the visual history of the Black Lives Matter organization.  The new piece is a much better work of art, made all the more so by having this painting underneath (and hopefully what the monuments celebrate buried underneath as well). 

You can see this artwork (and purchase a print of the original) at my website, www.greigleach.com and all of my other paintings as well.

UCI World Championships Men's Elite Road Race: Sprinting to the Rainbow

After seven hours in the saddle, nerve wracking descents on wet roads, and the cold spray of the wheels of the crowded peloton, Rodriquez jumped first for the final sprint but Costa had the stronger sprint.  It remains to be debated whether Rodriquez mistook the first advertising stripe as the finishing line and sat up too soon, or did he just not have enough to best Costa.  Whatever the reason, Costa will now be wearing the Rainbow Jersey of the World Champion for the coming season, it is the first ever to be worn by a Portuguese cyclist.  After the weather for the day's racing it is fitting to be racing for a rainbow even if it is only on the jersey and not from the breaking sunshine.  This is an original watercolor and ink postcard that is available for purchase by leaving a comment here with this post.  I will answer to arrange payment and shipping.

UCI World Championships Elite Men's Road Race: What Do You Have Left?

Joaquim Rodriquez put in a hard attack on the final climb of the circuit in Florence escaping from everyone in the break and what was left of the peloton, he was a little surprised to find that Rui Costa had managed to bridge the gap.  Rodriquez looked over his shoulder to discover how much Costa had left after he managed to catch the Spaniard inside of the final kilometer and over seven hours of racing in the rain.  The two were far enough ahead of the remainder of the riders that had started the day that they had time to slow enough to practically use track stands and tricks of sprinting on the boards of the velodrome.  Rodriquez learned all too soon what the Portuguese had left in his tank.  This is an original watercolor and ink postcard that could be yours by leaving me a comment here.  We can then arrange payment and shipping.

UCI World Championship Elite Men's Road Race: Two Away

After the larger break started losing their 9 minute plus lead on the peloton under the Italian escort, these two former Warsaw Pack riders got up the road on one of the final circuits through the streets of Florence.  Huzarski of Team Poland leads Barta of the Czech Republic as they climb hard past the umbrellas and rain slickers of the thousands of cycling fans craning their necks to see their heroes pedal by.  This is an original watercolor and ink postcard that is available for purchase, just leave a comment here and we can arrange payment and shipping.

UCI World Championships Elite Men's Road Race: Under Italian Escort

Florence was the stage for the World Championships all this past week concluding with the Men's Elite Road Race with one of the longest courses that was slogged out in horrible storms and slippery wet roads of central Italy.  The Italian national team came to the front as the peloton hit the steep climb working hard to break apart the group, shed the sprinters and chase down the break up the road.  After all they were all racing on home roads, to bad the weather was more like the opening stages of the Tour of Britain, oddly the entire British team dropped out before the race had covered 170 of the over 240 kilometers of  the water logged course.  This is an original watercolor and ink postcard that has been created using cake watercolors, brushes and paper from www.richesonart.com  This painting is available by leaving me a comment and we can arrange payment and shipping.