National Art Museum of Sport Press Release.

Steven Dennis Painting Chosen for National Art Museum of Sport Exhibit

INDIANAPOLIS—Contador, a painting by Steven Dennis, an artist in Chicago, Illinois has been selected by a jury for inclusion in the Commitment to Excellence in Art and Sport exhibit at the National Art Museum of Sport at University Place on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The exhibit, which includes 50 sport paintings, sculptures and photographs will run until April 20, 2011. They were selected in a global competition for sports artists conducted by the Museum. There were entries from over twenty-six states and six countries with more than fifty-seven sports or sports related subjects represented.

This image depicts Alberto Contador, the three time Tour De France champion, in time trial action. The viewer can sense Contador’s speed through the blurred strokes and his hunched, intense pose.

Welsh by birth, Chicago cycling artist, Steve Dennis, has lived in the US since 2004. A racing cyclist himself he turned to the sport as a subject for his art as he portrays the spirit, emotion and essence of cycling. He uses liquid ink and a drawing stick or Japanese calligraphy brush to portray the movement and speed of cycling.

Founded in 1959 in New York City by the late Germain G. Glidden, a portrait artist and national squash champion, the National Art Museum of Sport holds one of the nation’s largest collections of art depicting sport. Over 40 sports are represented in the over 900 paintings, sculptures and works on paper in the collection. Among the artists in the collection are Ogden Pliessner, Winslow Homer, George Bellows, Joe Brown, Ray Ellis, James Fiorentino and Alfred Boucher.

The Museum’s first home was in Madison Square Garden in New York. It has been in Indianapolis, “Amateur Sport Capital of the World,” since 1990.

The Commitment to Excellence in Art and Sport fine art competition and exhibit support the Museum’s two-pronged mission to encourage sports artists in their efforts to create sport art and to collect, preserve and share the best examples of sports art it can acquire.

The National Art Museum of Sport at 850 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, is open free to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. week days. For group tours and weekend hours, call 317.274.3627 or e-mail ecvarner@iupui.edu; more information at www.namos.iupui.edu.

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A bit of 'afters' .....

....as we would say in the UK.

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Happy Holidays to all.

My farewell post for this festive period will provide some escape from the family feuds, the kids beeping toys, the heat of the kitchen or the same old re-runs on the tv.

Ok so actually you should relish the time with your family and read instead of the tv but anyways:

'Videopeloton'.

A collection of great cycling videos all streaming via 'You Tube'.
Even the full length 'A Sunday in Hell'.


Thanks for following the blog this year and enjoying my artwork.
I wish you all a great holiday and wonderous New Year.


Cheers, Steve .

Oh and this too!!!!

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Sneak Peak at the current piece in progress

I have completed the first layer of drawing on this piece. This is chinagraph on a pretty heavy watercolour paper. I'll be adding washes of ink, more chinagraph drawing, more ink, some ink lines, building up layers of drawing and seeing what happens. I have blurred out the biggest clue as to the source material for this just because...

I may be delayed on finishing it though as my daughter just had an accident and sometimes life just happens.


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Not for the squeamish...

Robbie McEwen has had some knee issues in the past... and if you follow this link you can see what he could see when they were operating to correct those problems....

http://recoverydoctor.blogspot.com/2009/09/robbie-mcewen-knee-surgery.html


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Scene in Chicago

I walked past this machine a few weeks ago, the night that they lit the lights on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Needless to say I walked back to it and started snapping away. What a great piece of craftsmanship, sure it looks a little clunky, there are no slender curves or filligree lugwork. But it certainly displays rustic and mechanical charm. And it was just chained to a bike rack late one Saturday night.

I would love to know more about this beautiful trike (?).
If you know anything please post in the comments - Thanks.

Motorpacing, Stayers, Derny...

I loved seeing these at Herne Hill. Huge Triumph beasts that sound like jet engines or F1 cars roaring around Herne Hill with pilots dressed like something from Doctor Who and the riders behind them rubbing their front wheels against the motorbike's roller. All at a pace that you cannot believe can get any faster, and then someone ups the pace and makes a move, and does it again and again....



I found this site by Paul Spender which has a huge collection of photographs and some video all featuring motorpacing. Not great quality but worth looking just to see some amazing machines. Note the reversed forks andsmall front wheel for the track bikes, gets the rider closer to the aerodynamic draft given by their standing pacer.

http://imageevent.com/dernysportuk/janjonker

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'Breaking Away'

It's such a great movie and obviously the next movie I was going to tackle.

On watching the movie again though there are not that many different sequences of racing, lots of bike stuff sure, bikes around town, talking about bikes but then the finale is a whopping 20 minutes of just the Little Indy.

Here are 4 scenes that seemed suited to a quick sketch in ink on heavy watercolour paper.
This time I decided to throw in a splash of important colour just to see what happens.




The drawings are available individually at $75 each or as a set of 4 for $250.


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Kidical Mass

Pretty sure I have told you about this before but here are some more fun photos from a recent, warmer event.

Molly, Sarah and I have been to a few of the Logan Square rides which begin with 30 minutes of kids playing on the bunny hills and slide before the ride begins. It's more of a parade than a reclaim the streets event as it should be with small ones involved so after a lap of the park we head out and ride for up to an hour on the surrounding streets.

It becomes unavoidable to sometimes take an entire lane on a busier road and at times we hold up traffic on the smaller streets but with the adults calling attention to the kids on parade and the kids giggling away 'most' drivers and passers by are more than happy to wave and wait.
And you would be surprised at how young an age some of the children are able to ride or push themselves along for an hour! .

Skol 6 Day - 1973

Stuck inside when I'd booked a day's holiday thanks to a cold and the snow so had a flick through some of my Dad's old shots he'd sent me - proper bikes, string-of-suasage helmets, early aero . - Andrew G of Addiscombe Cycling Club

Here is the first photo from a post on the forum of my old team from the UK. Some great shots from the 1960's on - head over and have a look at these and browse around here: Addiscombe CC



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'Thought of You"

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Just an amazing piece of work - beautiful.

I found this video somehow and shared it on my non cycling Facebook account.
Then I started flicking through the rest of Ryan's site and this is what I saw on his bio

forget he works for the big movies as a storyboard artist.
Ryan puts up his cycling photo on his bio - cool.
Looks like he rides for Team Honey Stinger?

Ryan's site is here: http://conteanimated.com
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Ice...

Well snow finally found it's way to the Midwest and and I ventured out on my wife's mountain bike to slip and slide across the streets. Certainly something that takes practice.
Reminded me of this video from Lucas Brunelle though, watch as he rides across the Charles River.

http://www.digave.com/videos/

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Yuletide Sale

I have reduced the prices of most of my prints by up to 20%, just in time for Christmas, isn't that the ploy with all such sales.

Order now and you will receive them in time to surprise yourself or your best mate.

Velopaint print store is here at 'The Untapped Source':
http://www.theuntappedsource.com/Velopaint


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Watch the "Zurich 6 Day" live on the web.

MyP2P has been my go to place to watch the live Welsh Rugby games for the last year or so, funny how I have only just noticed that there are people out there streaming the 6 Day series.

Here is the link for the cycling schedule -
http://www.myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=cycling

Some of the streams are viewable via media player etc others require a third party stream player not many of which are Mac friendly. Worth trying though.

Another reason not to do any work in the office.

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Bicycle Truck built for the Congo

'Jalopnik' who originally posted this refer to the Chukudu as a bicycle.

Let's face it it's a scooter.

Still an interesting find I think.

Read all about it here on 'Jalopnik'.

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