Anyone can be creative, but a chosen few are just on a higher level. There are those whose creativity is simply remarkable. And some can combine different hobbies or talents to come up with a unique and astonishing creative masterpiece. Take Anthony Hoyt from Cheltenham, for example. He is a trained designer, though he does not use his training for his job, and considers himself a recreational cyclist. He does love his healthy hobby, that he decided to make something unique combining his artistic design skills. He cycles long hours around London just to create images on a fitness app called “Strava”, which shows his route (GPS tracked) on a road map screen.
He studies Google and other online maps to plan his artwork. “It’s a bit like spotting pictures in clouds,” he says. “If something jumps out at me, like perhaps a road that looks like a nose – then I’ll try and find eyes and so on. If nothing jumps out, I’ll try somewhere else, but I’ll keep coming back to places to see what I see,” Anthony explains. The artistic cyclist tries to stick to roads as much as possible, but cuts through parks, campuses, car parks, etc., if that’s required to get the perfect line for the image. He admits he is not the first to do such artwork, and has seen others do it, notably Stephen Lund in Canada.
His most recent creative drawing took about 9 hours of pedaling to complete.Given the season upon us, he created a reindeer image. Last year he did a Santa (father Christmas) image which took only 4 and a half hours of cycling, shocking the cycling world. Before that he did a snowman as his version of a Christmas greeting card, which took 88 miles to complete. But he does not just do images for the Christmas season. He does caricatures, animals, and whatever his creative mind fancies.
In 2017, he won first place in the Bristol Cycling Festival Strava art competition, with his piece called “fowl play.” Since he lives in the small city of Cheltenham, Hoyt normally visits bigger cities in the UK to do his creations. He has cycled around London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds, and Sheffield, but dreams of cycling internationally and says that US cities would probably be a huge challenge with their regular grid patterns.
Many are amazed at his creations, and the time it takes to plan and execute the images. Definitely Hoyt has amused many people who look forward to his next creative drawings. Cycling around may take time and effort, but it is a healthy hobby that helps make life more fun for some of us. We can’t imagine what is to come next for this creative cyclist.
