In Giro: Painting Neighborhood Places
There is a place that I love and always want to paint in my neighborhood, but it is almost always locked during the day. Then when the weather turns warm again, it’s open more often, and almost always on Sundays.
The Old Bike Cart, ExSnia
10 x 8″
Oil on Linen Panel
This painting is of our neighborhood DIY cooperative bike shop. In Italian these places are called cicliofficina.
And they are the best thing going if you’re a cyclist.
Why?
Because the entire bike shop is run by volunteers and on donation.
You can build your own bike from parts or fix up the one you already have and you don’t even have to know a thing. The people who volunteer there are bike wizards and will teach you everything you ever need to know about how to build, fix and keep up your bike.
Naturally I have spent many an hour here and am forever grateful to the generosity of the people who volunteer here after having spent a long day at work or for giving up their weekend to help technically clueless cyclists like myself.
This bike, called La Regina (or The Queen) took me my entire first winter after having moved to Rome to build.
A real beauty she was, but with my recent move I had to donate her because I no longer have room for 2 bikes and have upgraded to a larger bike with gears.
So as you can see, the cicliofficina holds a special place in my heart and I was thrilled to make this painting of the place.