Introducing Swell Times.
A recurring comic strip created by our art director, Skye Walker.
Brush Strokes: The Classics
In classic art, the Ocean is frequently featured as a dark and dangerous entity, waiting to destroy ships and lives. Marine art progressed along with the evolution of ocean going vessels. Swell-producing tempests and shorebreak mayhem, smashing boats to pieces are common subjects of classic seascapes. In many examples, classic artists painted waves with illuminated skill and menacing detail. In this gallery, we’ll take at look at waves in historical fine art.
Bayeux Tapestry- 11th century
“Shipwreck of Hugh de Boves”- Matthew Paris 13th Century
The coast and waves are a common theme of Japanese painters and printmakers throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
“Waves and Rock”- Hasegawa Togaku 17th Century
“Rough Waves”- Ogata Korin 1704
The most famous depiction of waves in art history is Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” “The Great Wave” is first in Hokusai’s series entitled “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” produced in the ukiyo-e style of woodblock print making. The artist portrays an iconic and beautiful peak about to smash a fleet of fishing boats…or do they quickly turn their boats and ride the wave safely to shore? Maybe a few of the fishermen jump out and bodysurf the wave to safety…
“Women on the Beach”- Hokusai 1797
“Masculine Wave”- Hokusai
“Cargo Ship and Wave”- Hokusai 1805
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) is best known for his dramatic landscape paintings of the frontier Western United States. But as seen here, he beautifully captured breaking waves and the power of the sea.
“The Shore of the Turquoise Sea”- Albert Bierstadt 1878
“Seals on the Rocks Farallon Islands”- Albert Bierstadt 1872
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900) was a Russian Romantic painter best known for his marine art.
“Storm”- Ivan Aivazovsky 1886
Ivan Aivazovsky
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was an American landscape painter, known for his seascapes.
“On the Beach”- Winslow Homer 1869
“Sunlight on the Coast”- Winslow Homer 1890
-KS
Sources:
Famous Seascape Paintings
Japanese Wave Paintings
Albert Bierstadt
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Brush Strokes: Blaze Syka
About Blaze Syka:
I grew up in San Diego, CA and demonstrated an interest in the ocean and art at an early age. I swam, played waterpolo, lifeguarded, and drew waves throughout high school and moved up north into colder waters for college and his professional career. My work with exploring and diagramming surf breaks with cross sections is fairly recent but I enjoy exploring angles and challenges in new pieces rendered in this style. Each new work is almost like a puzzle and I’m always looking to add new elements to keep them fresh. I’m currently investing more time into my artwork while working on post graduate studies. I always keep my wetsuit and a pair of bodysurfing fins in my car.
www.BlazeSyka.com
@blazesykd
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The Art of Doing Your Own Thing
By Skye Walker
SkyeWalkerArt.com
One could argue the point of what is cool and what is not cool in this world. I know I have certainly passed judgement on others because what they were doing didn’t appear to be cool to me. But in the same respect, I know that same judgement has been passed on me too. Shame on me for ever doing that. Because whatever activity thatperson was doing, that I didn’t think was ‘cool’, was making them happy and isn’t that the point of life? No matter what we do, we can’t escape the subtle or harsh criticisms of the world.
It’s inevitable. But don’t let that deter you from your path of happiness.
Being cool has nothing to do with being happy because being cool is a figment of our imagination and a projection of our pop culture soaked society. Being happy means you don’t care about cool one bit.
So you want to go rollerblading with just a speedo on? Do it. You want to do paintings of pink elephants in Cadillacs? Have at it. You want to be a uni-cycle mountain biker? Go send it. You want to eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Get after it. You want to boogie board? Okey dokey. The point is, if it’s making you happy (and not hurting anyone) who cares what others think about it? It’s your life… do what you like, right? Yes. Go do it now.
I love surfing. Of course, it’s cool. One could argue that it is one of the coolest things you can do in this world! To ride on a wave, maneuver down the line and pull into barrels and feel the energy of the earth and ocean under your feet… damn that’s cool. Nothing compares. It’s so cool that a lot of people like to do it. It’s open season in the seas now. Everyone has their favorite shred sticks and it’s game on at your favorite breaks. The weekdays don’t even accommodate “Gentleman’s Hour” anymore. It’s a war out there… Everyone is doing their own thing… with 100 of their “best” friends.
This influx of people rushing to the seas to enjoy the splendor of the waves hasn’t scared me away from surfing… but it did shift me in a different direction to experience the joys of the sea. I received a pair of Viper V5 Flex fins for my 30th birthday from some good friends six years ago… but they sat in my house for about a year and half before I ever used them.
I was a surfer, not a bodysurfer. I needed to get my wave count on my board because I loved it! But man, my wave count was down with the amount of pros, locals, barneys and kooks crowding the line-up. I didn’t dislike surfing, but the frustration of paddle battling was getting to me… but I didn’t know how much it was bugging me.
Then one day I took those fins out and discovered the subtle, freeing and under-the-radar nature of body surfing. To my left was a familiar, crowded peak with an onslaught of boards going in all directions… and where I was, well, it was empty. Just me and my buddy Kyle, dropping into unridden little gems, getting blown up in mini barrels and laughing our asses off. And not fighting any crowd to do it. Having the time of our lives without a care in the world and certainly not giving a second thought to whether or not what we were doing was cool. We were having a blast, and what could be cooler than that? I’m sure it looked like two guys flopping around from the beach… It was awesome, addictive, freeing and mostly, we were doing our OWN thing. We weren’t fighting for waves to enjoy and have fun… we were having a blast on our own terms.
The climbing community recently lost one of it’s most influential athletes. Dean Potter perished BASE jumping/wingsuit flying in Yosemite, CA. He was an absolute superhuman climber, slackliner, BASE jumper, wingsuit flier and he founded the sport of free-basing (climbing with just a chute and no ropes). People in the climbing community along with normal people who don’t climb certainly called him crazy, nuts, looney and more. His nickname was “The Dark Wizard”. But he didn’t care. He was doing what HE wanted, for himself. To feed that hunger inside of him. He didn’t give two cents about what people thought, and he broke the rules to do it. He was jumping illegally in Yosemite when he died. He went outside the rules to do his own thing and he paid the ultimate price. But he wouldn’t have wanted to go any other way because he left this world on his own terms.
This is an extreme example of someone ignoring the world to do their own thing to be happy. But it still hammers in the fact that if there is something you want to do that makes you happy, then do it. Screw the nay sayers. Do your thing and don’t look back. If your friends surf and won’t touch fins because they are “too cool” to do it, who cares? Go get pitted without them. Chances are, you’ll catch more waves and barrels than they will and all they’ll have to say is how many times there were burned on a wave.
There is a special place inside each of us that holds the truth of who we are and what we do… and we know that truth. You can wear this truth as a silent badge of honor and know that yes, I’m a rollerblader… I’m a mime… I re-enact the Lord of the Rings for fun… I’m a BASE jumper… I’m a bodysurfer and love it. Whether or not people know these truths about you, it doesn’t matter because you know the truth. You know it makes you happy to do your own thing… and no one can take that away from you.
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Brush Strokes: Matt Beard
Matt Beard is a very talented and Ocean-inspired artist. Originally from Long Beach, CA, Matt now resides in Humboldt County with his wife and children. He frequently roams the California coast in a large van full of “art and surfboards and friends and wives and childrens and on occasion even people from Oregon can be found hanging around back in there.”Matt Beard Art
Here, Matt shares work from his new project: The Insinuation Series.
He provides a perspective that bodysurfers know well.
What inspires the “Insinuation” project?
Waves. I love ’em. That’s what each painting in this series is all about. But instead of just painting a bunch of waves, I thought it would be interesting to try to convey a sense of a wave’s presence without actually showing the wave itself. The shadow from the wave falling on the surface foam left behind by the previous wave. The water drawing off the shallows. Subtle clues, but hopefully when they register with an ocean minded person, the blanks are filled in and the wave is suddenly imagined and felt instead of seen directly.
It’s easy to paint another picture of a wave, but its not so easy to conceptualize a fresh approach to something so familiar. When you stumble onto a concept like that it’s like discovering a new sandbar or reef on a crowded stretch of coast you’ve been surfing for years. It’s exciting. And you just want to score it as much as possible before the sand shifts or the crowds show up. I’ve only had a few sessions on this “Insinuation Series” so far, but I’m looking forward to more down the line.
*I’ll be showing the entire Insinuation Series, as well as a few other unreleased works, in my first proper art show in San Francisco at the Great Highway Gallery coming up in November/December. “Like Water” will feature the work of two other artists and friends as well, Aleks Petrovitch, and Alexander Schaffer Czech. The opening reception will be held on Friday November 14 from 6-10pm. Any art-minded ocean people within driving range of Ocean Beach, SF should get down, up, or over there.
When did you first recognize your artistic talents?
Trick question. I don’t think I’ve even met them yet, so I’m not sure I could pick em out in a crowd. Art has never been something I’ve really felt all that good at, I just find it one of the more meaningful and personally satisfying things I’ve found to do with my short time here. I guess if we’re going to call that talent, then that sense of “it’s-the-thing-for-me-to-do” really kicked in when I was about 16 years old, taking an art class in high school for an easy grade because the architectural drafting class was full. It was 1991 I think, the year Rick Griffin passed away. The tribute to his life and work in Surfer magazine that year was my introduction to the idea that art could really be anything you wanted it to be. That’s when I really began to explore freedom in art instead of thinking art was just this thing for old folks to do on weekends. By the way, I love old folks. And weekends.
Trick question. I don’t think I’ve even met them yet, so I’m not sure I could pick em out in a crowd. Art has never been something I’ve really felt all that good at, I just find it one of the more meaningful and personally satisfying things I’ve found to do with my short time here. I guess if we’re going to call that talent, then that sense of “it’s-the-thing-for-me-to-do” really kicked in when I was about 16 years old, taking an art class in high school for an easy grade because the architectural drafting class was full. It was 1991 I think, the year Rick Griffin passed away. The tribute to his life and work in Surfer magazine that year was my introduction to the idea that art could really be anything you wanted it to be. That’s when I really began to explore freedom in art instead of thinking art was just this thing for old folks to do on weekends. By the way, I love old folks. And weekends.
What are your preferred mediums?
I’ve always painted with acrylics, enjoying their simplicity. I hate paint thinner. I like water. Acrylics cleanup with water. Oils need mediums and thinners and they smell and they just seem overly fussy. I use only 3 primaries and white for all my paintings. The limited palette is actually quite versatile, and I find that it helps create nice harmonies across the spectrum of colors since nearly every stroke on the canvas contains at least in trace amounts each of those primaries to varying degrees. I’ve done series of art on various substrates, but I always come back to canvas. Wood is incredibly beautiful to work with, where the grain can become part of the art, but I think there must be a drummer living somewhere deep in my psyche, because I just can’t get enough of the way a stretched canvas vibrates like a drum while painting. Animal was the coolest muppet. True fact. Anyone that denies that, must have inhaled too many paint fumes. And speaking of inhaling paint fumes, I sometimes figure that art itself doesn’t really have much to do with the object created anyway, it’s all about what happens in the mind of the viewer as they take in the object. Like how well written poetry or verse speaks between the lines and often what is said indirectly is more powerful than when it is spelled out verbatim. I think art is like that too, and I want my art to resonate and conjure up unexpected ideas in the viewers mind, so in that sense my most preferred medium really is the human mind.
What are your earliest memories of the Ocean?
Down at Bolsa Chica in Orange County I remember one day where the sun was hot and the wind was light and the waves were at least 13 feet and my dad took me out to bob around and float over the waves and I was terrified but not too muchcause I was with Dad. That’s what I remember anyway. Looking back I’m sure it was about 1 foot. I must have been about 2 or 3 years old. I remember the taste of salt too. It was trippy. Most water didn’t have any flavor. Something different was going on out there.
How does the Ocean inspire your art?
I guess my art is just a reflection in some way of my life, and the ocean is a big part of that. I’m a bit of an introspective weirdo, so the ocean is a good friend to have. Nothing beats a fun wave and total solitude. It’s not the smartest combo here considering the annual shark voodoo going on out there, but I still find myself gravitating to offbeat sandbars at offpeak times and spending a fair bit of time in the ocean alone. She feeds a color junky like no other. Just being in the ocean and riding waves is an immersive in-the-moment experience, and I find that while painting I can often tap into that same non-thinking-just-flowing headspace. It’s fun.
Do you ever bodysurf? What are your thoughts on bodysurfing?
It’s a bit of a rarity. Nobody bodysurfs here much. It’s cold, there’s big giant hungry fish swimming around, the water is usually murky so you can’t see more than a few feet. It’s not like those films we see of Hawaii or La Jolla where it’s all crystal and blissful to just swim around. But that said, I’ve never been opposed to the 20 minute naked man session when confronted with a good shorebreak wedge and lack of surf gear. I’m not good with swim fins honestly. Just never spent the time with em to get the feel, so yeah. I guess I just lost all connection with your readers right there. But seriously if it’s just little wedges with some cushion, not right on dry sand, bodysurfing is a blast. I’m glad somebody’s out there doing it proper. It’s not me, though. I’m just a giggling kook trying not to get broken.
Swell Lines 