Electric bike excitement and a cow shed

Because we are in our motorhome we have no ancillary transport with us, so up to now I have been on a borrowed push bike.
Well, as you can imagine it's a bit hilly in these mountains, so you can imagine how excited I was to be offered a trial of an electric bike.
Now this wasn't your average, measly engined pedallo.  Oh no, it was a super duper, top of the range high voltage (well not too sure about that bit) high speed mountain bike.
It weighed a ton, so I wouldn't have liked to hump it across streams or over fences, but by golly it went like s**t off a shovel, and what fun!  I want one.

Sadly it was rather too expensive for me just now, and was also so heavy we would have had to put a stronger bike carrier on the van.  It was with heavy heart that I handed it back at the end of the day.
But it made my trip up to the cowshed a much more fun experience.

I had spotted this little shed over the winter.  The valley is quite steep here so it got little sun, but now the sun is much higher for longer (in mid-summer) it was perfect fodder for my paint palette.
The sun was hot, but I found a generously shady tree, inevitably surrounded by nettles waiting for when I dropped brushes etc, but the shade was welcome.
I am trying to get more paint on my canvas, and end up with a brighter result.  For many a long month I have been a bit disappointed to arrive home and find a dull painting that needed post brightening treatment.

I prefer working on a tinted canvas.  Recently I have been tinting my board on site, rather that preparing it before I leave home, and I suspect this has added to my woes.  I have other strategies for future attempts that involve a quick rough block in of the basic shapes, on a white ground, then a layer of thicker paint on top.  This was my first attempt at this ploy, and I think it paid off. I didn't need to brighten this one up at all, in fact no alterations were made when I got home, other than to photograph it better.

I am quietly pleased.  The shed doesn't look too precise (always a bugbear of mine) and the roof colour has worked well.
The position of the sun also meant that as it moved round the light didn't vary too much.  I had established the shadow patterns early on so was able to stick with it, and my preparatory sketch helped me remember relative values.  I will get there eventually!

Cow Shed on the Plateau
12x10"
oils on canvas board