24" x 18" oil on wood panel, 2022.
 
This piece started off life from a black-and-white photo I used as a reference. The original picture is of a motorcycle rider sitting on a hill on the side of the road pondering something. It looks to probably have been taken in the 1950s. I like using a mix of modern and historic reference photos.
 
With this one, I wanted to keep the background simplistic so all the focus was on the subject. I thought about having the background be just one color, but then added the stripes as it reminded me of racing stripes.