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October 30, 2005

Not cycling

After tottering round the yard for a few weeks, with the training-wheels stopping rapid collision with the hard stones, I learnt to ride a bike.

homage-to-madrid.gif

I would ride my bike up and down the lane behind our house every day in the summer. As I grew I progressed to a racing bike and I would ride further afield, through the village and over the hill, to see my friend Michael Chatterton.

At college I didn’t ride a bike for four years, then in Leeds, as a photographer, I didn’t ride a bike for a further two years. On my subsequent arrival in France I rented a bike, sat astride it and rode off, on the wrong side of the road, without a worry.

Painting is not like riding a bike. If you don’t do it for a while you forget.

This isn’t always a bad thing. A break enables you to reassess your values, consider what it is you are doing, and even perhaps why you are doing it. But it can be frustrating, as I have found today, when you can’t remember how you did it.


Posted by john at October 30, 2005 10:11 PM

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