#12 of 30 - "Liangshan Creek Bed 1" - UPDATED 1/26

"Liangshan Creek Bed 1" - Taiwan
- Acrylic on Canvas - approx. 90x65cm/36x25"
This one is hot off the easel, so I have only an informal picture at this point. This painting is at the "signed it and staring at it" phase. (UPDATE: See the finished painting, below.) My goal was to do this relatively large painting in a single day. Success! I went for speed the whole way. This is one of a series of paintings of this creek and its three waterfalls. You can just see the uppermost fall in the background. I had a blast painting this, and remembering climbing around on the rocks on the way in to the upper fall.

Here's the finished, "formal portrait" of the painting--I added just a few details to the painting and got the lighting right for the final photo. By the way, my apologies for misspelling "Liangshan" with a "J" in an earlier version of this post!

#11 of 30 "Liangshan Hills 1"

"Liangshan Hills 1" - Taiwan 
- Soft Pastel on Paper - 5.9x8.2"/15x21cm
We hiked a couple of kilometers in to see the three falls that make up Liangshan Waterfall. This view was somewhere between the first and second fall, as I recall. The mid-morning mist filled the steep-sided rift cut by the creek. As always in Taiwan, a few kilometers feels more like a few miles. After painting so much ink and oil pastel recently, it was nice to play with soft pastels again on this one! I'm actually still using the first set Ping ever gave me.

#10 of 30 "Monkey Hill Tree"

"Monkey Hill Tree" - Southern Taiwan
- Ink and Ballpoint Pen - 9.9x6.9"/250x176mm

We'd been to this viewing place before, so rather than go inside and watch the wild monkeys come down and steal treats, I decided to sit in the parking lot and try to paint the light. I found this wonderful tree standing out in the sunlight, just up the hill. The monkeys called out from the woods as I painted, but none of them seemed interested in the artwork or the colorful blocks of ink. As people came out of the viewing area, they gathered around to watch me as I tried to finish before we had to go. (I guess I was a good encore to the monkey show! I got a standing ovation when I was done!)

#9 of 30 - "Liangshan Waterfall" plein air

I was very happy to be able to keep up with the 30 paintings in 30 days while Ping and I were traveling in Taiwan with a group of seniors, including Ping's mom. One of the stops was in the Miaolin National Scenic Area. Can't wait to go back!

"Liangshan Waterfall 1" - Miaolin District, Taiwan 
- Ink and Ballpoint Pen - 6.9x9.9"/176x250mm

In the misty morning light, we followed the trail as it wound up into the steep hills, tracing a rocky creek bed. The first fall was pretty. The second fall took a bit of scrambling to get to, and the third fall was a lengthy cataract down to a collection of boulders, some of which might not have fit in a two-car garage. Ping sat on one while I found another vantage point where I could paint this small section of the fall, plein air. By the time I was done, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We hiked partway back in the creek bed, finally scrambling back up to the trail to catch up with the rest of our group. We took so many wonderful pictures on this one hike!! I'm going to paint a whole series from this outing alone! We're hoping to come back here, perhaps when the water is running a little higher. The place is truly magical!

#8 of 30 - "Mudstone"

This is the 8th of 30 paintings in 30 days. I imagined this landscape after having seen some of it on the way south.

"Mudstone" - Taiwan
- Ink and Ballpoint Pen - 9.9x6.9"/250x176mm
After taking a bus to the southern end of Taiwan, I sat in the hotel and painted this impression of some of the landscape we passed on the way.

#7 of 30 - "Mysterious Entryway"

"Mysterious Entryway" - Daedunsan, S. Korea
- Oil Pastel on Paper, approx. 6x9"/152x228mm
On our way down from the summit of Daedunsan in S. Korea, we passed this strange opening in the rocks. If we hadn't had to get back to the group, I'm sure Ping and I would have ventured inside. I still wonder what we might find just a few meters further in.

Tandem Bike in a Bag

Seriously! You can put a full-fledged, honest-to-god, rear-suspension, 24-speed bicycle built for two in a bag. Ping did a lot of research and found Glitterbike, a Taiwanese manufacturer which makes a folding tandem bike. We put over 80 km on it in just a few days, and we're loving it.

This is the coolest thing: you can fold it so small that it fits into a bag which you can carry onto the MRT or the ferry. You don't have to buy a separate ticket just for the bike! Of course, at 19 kilos, you'll rather ride it than carry it, which inspired the following poem:

Bike in a Bag

by Mark Ivan Cole (thanks to Jerry Boyd for the idea!)

I carry a tandem bike here in my bag!
I carry it everywhere, though I may sag
And tumble and stumble and fumble and flag,
I still keep my bicycle zipped in my bag!
When other folks ask why I carry it there,
I simply respond, with the haughtiest air:
"My bike is pristine, and I feign would despair
"If once I besmirched it with my derriere!"
I've wondered, of course, if perhaps we should ride it,
And not haul a bag with a tandem inside it,
But till I've the courage to swallow my pride,
I'll lug this big sack with the tandem inside.

For more detail on the bike, read on!