El Mar openingo!

The opening night for El Mar Mi Alma at Retrospect Galleries Byron Bay. Was cool. All the heads were there and it was nice seeing the mix of painting, photography and history on the walls. I was a happy artist because one of my bigger pieces 'hometree' sold as soon as the doors opened...so now I can buy more canvas and paint. All had fun and then afterwards I went over the road to the Byron Community centre and watched The Sea of Darkness. It's the dark story of the early days of the G-Land surf camp in Java Indonesia. I was interested because I first went there in 1988 when I was 17, just ten years after it was discovered by Mike Boyum. One night while in bed at G-Land I overheard some old guys talking about a surf spot called Desert Point. I snuck down my ladder and from a distance managed to get a photo of the mud map they were checking out. I went there the next year and camped in a fishermans hut for 2 weeks. 5 of us enjoyed the best barrels of our lives.



'hometree' 2009


Al Sanchez


Hewy looking, Al Knost kicking


Simmons inspired wood and waves
by Ryan Heywood


Ian Burrell

The Sea my Soul (El Mar Mi Alma)

Retrospect Galleries in Byron Bay opened El Mar Mi Alma on the 11th of March 2010. The first thing I did when I left school (besides letting down Mr Gearin's tyres and surfing for a year) was a carpentry trade. Lately I've been enjoying mixing wood into my artmaking. For this particular show I did a few varied and different pieces and sizes. Included was the timber swallow tail below, using plywood, cedar and driftwood. It's part of a new collection I'm doing called 'waterbird collection'. More bout that later.

See retrospectgalleries.com to check out more of El Mar...

Tom

This is my mate Tom from New Earth Tribe. He designs and prints his own Tees called 'from tom'.

birdies and waves

This is my newest favourite bird photo. The usual camera I use is an AF Canon 500D. At the time of this photo it was in for a service so I was shooting with an old Nikon Manual focus. Big Deal - I say, as I write this - I shot the whole of Blue Yonder on manual focus and slide film. Yeah but after a little while the auto focus is just so nice to use for action, but i'll tell ya what, the manual focus is definitely more satisfying. I shot the wave photo about a week later...and guess what, it's my new favourite wave photo.