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My finished group of paintings for the petites trevaux art show at Retrospect Galleries which opened last last Friday and is hanging till next Friday

...it's called 'petits trevaux'

Artshow opening at Retrospect Galleries in Byron Bay tonight at 6pm. 'Petits trevaux'.

32 artists with 9 works each, all 250mm x 250mm. 3 of mine above. I'm gonna have a shave for this occassion. Enjoy.

new ideas...

There's a new show opening at Retrospect Galleries in Byron Bay this coming Friday night. I'll have these new ideas and a few more finished by then. There will be 9 in total.

plane ing

I'd spoken with Kidman the night before about making a planing hull. We talked and philosophied and factualised. The only thing that came out of it was 5' x 23" x 3". That's the size I ended up making my so-called planing hull. Lindsay Lord probably would have hit me over the head with his now famous naval architecture book. Thanks to Richard Kenvin, and his curiosities and writings, I grabbed my electric saw and hacked out a foam block which I hoped to ride (glide, slide) tomorrow and get some of what Ryan Burch and Lucas Dirkse have been feeling; Friction free waveriding...or something like that.

What I actually got was two waves and a total of 4 seconds friction free sliding. It was fast and free, no doubt. Hard to manage, yes. The best wave I got was on my gut. Which as I thought more about it was pretty much belly boarding. I got back on my quad and having grown up on thrusters and twinnies was much more at home being able to direct my board up and down, rather than straight across.

That's when Mick Waters joined me on his planing hull. All 8 or so inches of it. Ed Lewis had sent him over one of his Enjoy handplanes. We had a killer session swapping and sharing waves. Mick got barrelled, I didn't. Walking back up the trail to my car, Kidman and family had just pulled up. Andrew's son Guthrie says, 'Hey Dad what's that he's holding?', at which Kidman replied, 'that's Jim's idea of a foamie.'

Mick Waters with handplane

Photos by Lisa & JMc

Blue Yonder • new Tees

I recently doodled some new artwork onto paper and afterwards decided it was time to do some new T-shirts. I haven't done any Tees for a while and these 2 designs I came up with were inspired by some new paintings that I've been working on this October. Ho'okupu surf art gallery in Byron Bay have always been supportive of my art since 2005 when my first book, Blue Yonder, was published. If you live in Australia (or anywhere I suppose) and happen to be in Byron Bay you can get one of my new shirts at Ho'okupu. (Noosa might be gettin some too...Check Solace surf, or back here soon) Each Blue Yonder Tee comes with an original A4 screenprint that I handmade onto watercolour cardpaper. I enjoy screenprinting and I liked the idea of giving away some original art to anyone that was nice enough to buy one of my Tees. Enjoy Blue Yonder Tees while surfing, walking or eating

 

          

I made this nice little timber thing too

new art on the way

Right now my studio walls are full of works in progress of medium to large scale paintings. I have 6 new paintings on the go along with 2 x collections of 9 small works on canvas for the petites trevaux show coming up at Retrospect galleries at the end of November, in Byron Bay and on the Gold Coast. Above is a small section of 'creation'. The surfboard fin isn't part of the art. Will post more as I near completion

Outlaw cowboy

Just recently I did a photoshoot with Dan Hannaford for his new music project with Clay Blythe. We found some cool spots in the hills just behind Byron Bay. I'd had my eye on the train tracks and old bridge for years, just waiting for the right opportunity. Dan briefed me on the shoot and said somethin' like, 'i don't know, kinda outlaw cowboy I suppose'. Aside from playing music Dan likes trenchcoats, catching fish and surfing. Check his site for more

Little Black Wheels arrives into US!

The promo reads: 'One family embarks on a five month road trip. A two year old, a pregnant mother, a dog, a dad and a camper van. This isn't a particularly new concept; surfers have been doing it for years. The bread and butter road trip. No boat charters, internet swell predictions or expensive budgets, just a car, some boards and a plan'. Mick Waters' new film Little Black Wheels will be premiering in the US real soon. I travelled with him, filming in Oz, Japan and Bali. Check the trailer and stoke out.

new board

I get my boards from Stuart Darcy surfboards at Currumbin, Qld. His factory is state of the art, and as far as 'eco-friendly' goes its been voted best in the world, with the only dust particles entering the environment are those that leave the factory on the soles of your thongs. In a time of pop-out boards and (something to do with some parts of industry disregarding enviro issues), Darcy's uncompromising commitment to the environment along with making high quality boards is encouraging. This new quad he gave me goes reeeeeeally fast and it has nothing to do with the fluoro colour bands.
My son Colby took the photos.

Kurungabaa

The header reads, 'a journal of literature, history and ideas from the sea'. Loosely, from what I've seen of the content, all words, photography and art are somehow surfing related. The Kurungabaa crew of literary hardcores and creative artists have put together this 3rd issue (Vol 1 no.3) of a very worthy publication. I've adopted it into my 'gotta gets' and it sits on my shelf alongside The Surfers Journal and Juxtapoz magazines. You can buy it here, or read it wherever you can get hold of a copy. I'm pretty sure it's only available through subscription. I had the opportunity to submit some of my work for this issue, and it's the first time I've been involved in a publication with a hills hoist on the cover. pretty Stoked.

I'm a Meta4

Darcy 5'9"

Surfing could be a metaphor, for my life. My life could be a metaphor, for my art. Up, down, good, evil, fun, shxt. My life usually goes something like this; The night before most given days, I will check the weather, and then plan my day. It all revolves around the weather. Set alarm, usually for 6am. Wake up. Stare out window and check wind. To surf now, or later? I'll drift and think, and then usually do something like, stare at my previous nights paintings, meditate on my dreams, or a bit of reading in the morning light. If I planned to surf early it's dangerous for me to stare at my paintings because there's always something not finished, and this makes me wanna paint. And If I do paint, I don't surf. Time flies when surfing. Time super-flies when painting. I've had quite a few 6am 2 hour painting sessions where I'll step back, look at what I've achieved and look at the time and just go, What!!. Same as surfing...sometimes a handful of waves in an hour, What!! . But this past week was a good week. I met up with Darcy at his factory and agreed on the shapes of some new boards, I began working on 5 new paintings, sold 2 other new paintings, and the local rivermouth was pretty-well pumping, between 2 -5ft.


'passing through' (renamed 'coming home') Sold


'wow, finally' Sold

Due to my unpredictability with inspired painting times my surfing is usually done alone or with my sons, but this meta4 week I managed to surf with a couple of friends, Andrew Kidman, and on another day, Mick Waters. Both times were small clean left wedges. Andrew and I swapped boards for a few waves. He was on a Mackie 5'5"(?) extreme flextail fish. I was on my Darcy 5'9" twin keel fish. Mick was on his Kidman shaped widow and he and I surfed with my sons Colby and Blake.


ColbyMc 1


ColbyMc 2


BlakeMc 1


BlakeMc 2


BlakeMc 3


Mr McMeta4

This wasn't a down, evil, and shxt week. This was a good week. Since writing this, I figure that surfing is not a meta4, for my life, nor my life, a meta4 for my art. I am a meta4 of their end result.


studio things


studio

Nat Bob George

This is all that's left of the original Sea Surfboards factory in Byron Bay...a timeless and simple piece of meaningful grafitti. No need to say another word.

Noosa Loggin'

dawn loggin'


dusk loggin'

Lisa and I did a lil' roadie to Noosa last week. I'd been real keen to get my 9'3 single on a few tea tree walls for a looong time. There was swell about too, so the anticipation was pretty high. After dropping in to see Josh and the crew at Solace surf Lisa and I hightailed it to the points (even after Josh threw us some local knowledge of a perfect peak over at sunshine Beach). Now this was only the third time i'd ever been to Noosa, so I was like a naive traveller envisioning said surf location through rose-tinted sunnies and images of McTavish and his '48 Holden at Nationals. Anyway all the smiles and big eyes were turned to straight faces when we pulled up at Nasho's at dusk to be greeted by slop. Nice sunset though.

Ye olde Mackie Fish

My old Mackie 5'6" fish. Was a definite favourite. Fast, loose and slippery. The biggest surf I ever rode it in was in 2005 at Blueys beach in Foster NSW. 6ft wedges bouncing off the headland and tapering steep down the beach. It was the only time I ever had to grab its rail through a cutty. Michael handmade those enormous fibreglass fins. I remember showing this board to Greenough in 2003 on the Blue Yonder journey. He said, 'it needs timber fins'. The colour photos were taken in 2001 and the B & W about 2 months ago when it rose from the dead.

What you didn't see in Byron today

My nephew Luke, aka Lones, is up visiting from Sydney at the mo'. We been surfing, arting, eating and mulching my fruit trees. Luke's a street artist and enjoys nothing more than a big blank wall, 10 fresh cans of ironlak paint and his own homebrand music beating from his iphone. Looking for waves on the road today he was quick to spot these guys across the field rolling up and setting up for an afternoon of painting. Not just 'writers', but the best in Oz. I've done a small amount of street art, and nothing like this. It was in Brisbane after seeing Wolfmother play. We ended up sleeping on the street that night and in the early hours of the following morning we found a blank power box and made our mark with textas and crayons. I was a street artist for 2 hours (I'm a studio artist. See; garage artist). Next time your heading into the Bay look left and you'll see these finished pieces from 'Next' and 'Sofles'.

waterbird collection

This birdie is part of my new waterbird collection. Sold to a nice home, but still part of the waterbird family.

Birdies

At Lennox Head beach the other day these two birdies were hanging out in the sky just above where I was surfing. They were doin that thing animals do where they follow and mimick each other. It's a collective consciousness type deal where animals are naturally unconsciously reacting in unison. (breathe now). It's an unplanned dance of sorts. Schools of fish do it real well. I've seen humans do it too, without such graceful results. More photos of these two gulls before end of the week. (and the waves below).

'home'

I did this painting a short while ago onto some nice plywood I found at Main Beach in town. It hangs on a wall just inside the front door of my home. The print of it is now part of a set of 3 that hang in Andy's 'The Top Shop' on the corner of Massinger St in Byron. My mate Tim works there...he's a good cook and a good tuberider. And everyone knows that Andy makes a killer coffee.

Throwups

I drove past this truck in Byron on Sunday and it reminded me of one of my fave artists Barry McGee. He loves to throwup his tag on trucks and tip them over and fill them with televisions and smash them up and all sorts. I'm not to good at reading tag throwups but I'm pretty sure this one says Frank something...