This painting captures a fleeting, unscripted moment from a Harley-Davidson Riders Club rally in England—frozen in time thanks to a photograph taken by Ian Thoburn back in 2008. It’s not a staged scene or a polished portrait, but something far more real— a rider mid-struggle, trying to get his bike to fire up.
The man is caught leaning hard into the bike, his body tense and focused as he wrestles it into life. You can almost feel the resistance of the kickstart, and the weight of the machine beneath him.
There’s a rawness to the brushwork that mirrors the scene itself. The dark, moody background contrasts with bursts of warm colour, like sparks or echoes of sound and movement.
What makes this artwork even more compelling is the mystery of the rider. His identity is unknown—just a passing figure in a rally full of stories—yet his moment has been immortalised. He becomes a symbol of every rider who’s fought with a stubborn engine, every shared laugh, every small victory that makes these gatherings unforgettable.
For Ian, this was one of his favourite photographs—not just for the image itself, but for the memory of the rally and the cheer that followed when the bike finally roared into life.
🎨🎨🎨
Created in 2021
Mixed media. Framed
The size of this artwork is 84 x 119 cm or 33.1 x 46.8 in