He's never had a bucket list. But that didn't stop him from biking through 56 countries

At 5 years old, David FeBland went on a ride he’s never forgotten.

Mr. Ellis — his family gardener — picked him up on his motorcycle for the first time. It was his job to take the now internationally renowned artist to nursery school. FeBland sat on the handlebars, riding through the English countryside. The trip was only one mile, but he said it was the freest he ever felt.

That ride inspired a lifelong passion for non-motorized, longdistance biking, he said, with his red, white and blue road bike next to him.

“It was one of those imprinted experiences that stays with you,” FeBland said, smiling.

He’s spent his entire adult life traveling the world on a tandem bike with his wife, Lynda. FeBland’s artwork has shown in Europe, the U.K. and across the U.S. They’ve crossed 56 countries off their bucket list so far.

FeBland moved to Phoenix six years ago, and splits his time between the Valley and New York City. Though he is has been represented by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, London, Frankfurt and Berlin, and now lives here, his exhibition "Relics of Empire" at 9 the Gallery is his first showing in metro Phoenix.

The show, which runs through the end of May, features his signature large scale paintings that blend mundane scenes with the otherworldly and are inspired by the extraordinary things he's observed throughout a life spent on the road. And there's been a lot.

"Life is long," FeBland said.

FeBland's front row seat to life

FeBland's mother was an American and his father British. When he was 5 years old, they moved from the English countryside to a villa on the Mediterranean, then finally ended up back in Coney Island, New York, where his grandma lived.

“All of a sudden, we were in a mosquito-swarming, four-story walk-up. Suddenly, I'd been plucked and moved from this beautiful surrounding into a place of freak shows," FeBland said. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I thought it was fantastic. I looked around and suddenly there were no more genteel, boring people. We were only there for nine months, but it felt like nine centuries."

His observations began on the busy, dirty streets of Coney Island, a beach anyone could access by subway, where people pinching pennies could go for an affordable vacation. It was a rough, bustling place where bearded ladies screamed out invitations to shows from pulpits in the middle of the street.

He spent his early teens dabbling in his many interests: jazz, politics, astronomy and travel.

FeBland was the class clown who cracked jokes, but also thought deeply about life. His friend and fellow artist Harrison Hurwitz described FeBland, who he’s known since they were 12 years old, as "mischievous, but never violent," he said. "He'd never hurt anyone's feelings."

At 18, all FeBland knew he wanted was to go to college as far away from home as possible. The University of Cincinnati was the furthest away from his hometown in White Plains, New York, where he had moved from Coney Island in 1958. So, there he went.

“I thought I was going to be a nuclear physicist for about a half an hour and then I thought I was going to be an aerospace engineer for 45 minutes,” FeBland said. “I ultimately studied political science.”

A winding path to painting

FeBland didn't become an artist until he was 40 years old. First, he was a landscape architect, the first and only job he ever had with a boss.

“And I ended up getting fired,” FeBland said, laughing. “So, I became a freelance illustrator.”

In the late 1980s, he designed the repackaged pocket book covers of Agatha Christie's murder mysteries. He created portraitures of celebrities for Panorama Magazine and he illustrated for commercial campaigns across the country.

In his small, rented studio space, FeBland became his own art instructor, ordering acrylics and oil paints online and putting the sights he’d seen over the years of his life onto canvas. For five years, no one saw his work.

But slowly, his illustration work transitioned into painting commissions.

His inspiration came from summer cross-country bicycle trips, a tradition he began with his wife, Lynda, in 1984.

How biking around the world shaped FeBland’s life

Though FeBland had spent almost all of his life using his bike as his primary means of transportation, the first big trip the couple undertook was a 1,500-mile journey over seven weeks. And it began as a mistake.

Lynda, a genealogist by trade, discovered that her grandfather was born in Sighetu Marmației, Romania — and she wanted to go. FeBland accidentally booked flights to Szeged, Hungary, but the solution was simple: The couple would ride a tandem bike from one country to the next.

They biked 35 miles a day with 100 pounds of equipment on their tandem bike, riding through the countryside of Romania and the Carpathian Mountains. They met strangers who became lifelong friends. The kind of strangers who pull up on their bikes right next to you and invite you to their village for an extended family weekend, even though they’ve just met you.

"It was still a communist era," FeBland said. "Our mail was intercepted for five years. Then the wall fell in November of 1989, and the next week, we got a letter from him, thanking us for visiting him five years before. We are still friends on Facebook."

Since their first trip more than 30 years ago, the couple has biked through every country in Europe with the exception of Norway and Albania, crossed through Cuba, after being robbed two hours into their trip, and through the mountains of China and Japan. In three weeks, the couple will be biking through Southern California wine country.

“It's a foundation now for the work that I do, the art that I create. It gives me an opportunity in a style of travel, to see things and observe things up close," FeBland said.

His first trip to Romania inspired more than wanderlust. It was the first time he felt that he had a front row seat to life, like he did as a kid on the streets of Coney Island. And those observations lead FeBland to his true calling.

“I never set out to be a painter,” FeBland said, looking over at his bike. “Now, all I want to do is exercise and paint. It was never like that before. I’m always thinking about the next painting.”

For FeBland, life and art are all he needs

FeBland is 72 now. He’s painted more than 750 paintings. Some sell for more than $25,000 dollars.

FeBland blends surrealism with observations from ordinary life. Some things he paints as is. Three girls, for example, sitting on the edge of a bright yellow food truck, or a pair of people cleaning the floors of an old, Byzantine basilica he saw in an Italian village.

"This massive basilica became empty. And we cycled by and we went in to see it," FeBland said. "There was virtually nobody there, just two people scrubbing the floors in this beautiful, large space. What a juxtaposition. It's profound and profane at the same time."

Another painting displays a rundown "Melrose Pharmacy," with a colorful myriad of eclectic people in the front. A dinosaur lingers in the back. Though he'd never seen this image in real life, he said and laughed.

"Why do I paint things that look like they could have been observed? Because that's what's gripping to me," FeBland said. "I am much more interested in telling a story about the way we live, or an interpretation of the way we actually live."

His intricate paintings are shown across the world. He's currently working on his catalogue for an upcoming show in Berlin, Germany.

As to his success, FeBland is satisfied with the life he has created. "Artists can’t critique their own work,” he said. And he plans to continue doing the things he loves— taking in the wonders of life and translating them with a paintbrush.

"I've never had a bucket list. I've got a wonderful life, access to the outdoors, good health, and I get to paint," FeBland said. "It's all I need."

How to see David FeBland’s ‘Relics of Empire’

When: Through May 21.

Details: 9 the Gallery, The Lawrence Building, 515 E. Grant St., Phoenix. 480-454-5929, 9thegallery.com.

Reach the reporter at sofia.krusmark@gannett.com. Follow her on Instagram @sofia.krusmark.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How an Arizona couple traveled 56 countries by tandem bike