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Everybody knows the riding a bike saying; the one about never forgetting how. Even if you haven't ridden a bicycle in decades, you can hop on and start pedaling and do just fine.

True.

To a point.

You'll wobble. You'll be timid.You'll be very careful regarding braking and steering and holy schmidt there's an intersection right HERE. But you'll do okay, and when you proudly return to park the bike you soon learn that your butt is sore. Shortly thereafter, you'll realize that a whole bunch of muscles you haven't considered for decades are sore as well. None of which matters, because riding a bike is just like riding a bike. Once you've learned, you never forget.

Sometimes we who paint go through spells during which we don't paint. There're millions of reasons why this might happen. But even if you haven't painted in a long time, you can grab the tubes and brushes and start applying paint and do just fine.

True.

To a point.

You'll wobble and forget details about everything from composition to execution and make 287 dumb mistakes for every brush stroke that accomplishes what you intended. Which sounds like abject failure until you remember that the best paintings you've ever created were accomplished under a 75 mistakes to one successful brush stroke ratio. I'm sure there are painters whose every brushstroke is spot-on, but I'm guessing the resulting paintings have all the soul of a 1970s avocado-green refrigerator. 

This painting depicts a pretty little wooded corner in the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. I suspect it is location for weddings and such, although I've never visited it when so used. But this is a riding a bike painting. I haven't painted in a while and the mistake to intended effect quotient is extremely high. Hopefully it is not as noticeable to you as it is to me. Hopefully you can look at this painting and think to yourself "Hey, look at that old fart riding a bike. Just goes to show."