Surf Art
If you are a surf artist and would like to submit your creations, please contact us. Feel free to email us a bio including where you’re from and what materials you use.
Come back soon to see more Surf Art! Updates are made frequently.
Just added: The Surf Art of Nathan Paul Gibbs
About the artist: Surf Art is Nathan’s main passion. His work resembles a mixture of Jackson Pollack, Cezanne and Van Gogh. If all these artists surfed, they would paint like him. In addition his found object mastery takes the old and gives it new life.
The Surf Art of Steve PP
About the artist: Hailing from Woolacombe, Devon, U.K., Steve PP is not a brilliant online marketer. His website lacks a bio and contact page so there’s really not much to glean about Mr. PP’s art, or life, including why his name is PP. But check out the surf impressionism.
The surf art of Brian Frabasilio
About the artist: Otherwise known as “Frab,” Brian Frabasilio grew up with a passion for drawing and surfing. He enrolled in college to learn graphic design but quit after a short time because “working on a computer did not feel like art.” Brian’s yearning to travel led him to the US Navy where he served for four years during Desert Storm, which he says were some of the best years of his life. Traveling the world with four surfboards as a Navy petty officer, Brian surfed throughout Asia, the Gulf and Australia. After the Navy, Brian moved back home to Southern California where he focused on painting and surfing. Four years ago, he sold his first painting at the San Clemente Art Walk. Last year, he sold over 80 paintings. Today, he resides in San Clemente where he is a self-described starving artist and full-time dad to his three-year-old son. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
The surf art of Christine Brailsford
About the artist: The versatile and multi-talented North County, San Diego resident Christine is not only a great illustrator, but she’s an accomplished shaper as well. Check out some of her paipo/bellyboards, which Patagonia sells in their Cardiff-by-the-Sea location. Also a sculptor, photographer and children’s book author, Christine graduated from the Laguna College of Art.
The surf art of Pascal Jean Delorme
About the artist: Hailing from the region of Burgundy, French artist Pascal Jean Delorme is a boardsport artist, specifically, a “glisse,” artist, painting anything related to boardsports.
Delorme is an experienced windsurfer, catamaran sailer, boogey-boadrer, jet skier and waterskier.
He made his first oil painting at age fifteen and exhibited for the first time at sixteen.
Recent Exhibits include the “Galerie de la Reine ” in Biarritz.
The surf art of Ken Combs
About the artist: Combs lived most of his life in downtown “Surf City” aka Huntington Beach and spent most days in the ocean. His life has taken a little bit of a detour from the ocean. As he says in his own words: “I’m sorry to say I now live out in the Inland Empire, in the city of Grand Terrace, but the beach
and surf culture remain in my blood.”
Combs loves to paint old Woodys of day’s gone by. His paintings are oil on canvas. Combs also spent 3 years in the former Soviet Union during the early 1990s. It’s unusual to meet an artist inspired by both the waves and Soviet architecture. We hope you’ll enjoy Combs’ work.
The surf art of James Parkhurst
About the artist: Parkhurst, from Manhattan Beach, CA, took many surf trips to Mexico, which had a big impact on him and ultimately inspired his work towards seascapes. His experience working on a tuna boat in Mexico and Central America instilled an even deeper love and respect for the ocean, which is evident in his earlier paintings. His work as a tuna fisherman also took him as far as New Zealand, where he lived, worked and painted for a year.
Upon his return from New Zealand, Parkhurst attended Otis Parsons College of Art & Design and Long Beach State University where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communications. Since then, he has worked as an Art Director for various advertising agencies and companies, winning numerous awards for creativity.
Parkhurst’s first love will always be his painting, however, and his ultimate goal is to completely devote himself to creating more masterpieces. Several of his impressive surf creations are acrylic on masonite.
The surf art of Paul A. Forney
About the artist: Forney is a born and raised Hawaiian best known in the surf world for his Bone Yard Comics, which he’s created since 1972 and frequently feature environmental awareness themes. Forney is the designer of a swim fin, which many lifeguards in Hawaii adopted.
The surf art of Daryn McBride
About the artist: McBride hails from the small but ever-increasingly cosmopolitan town of Mount Maunganui, on the North Island of New Zealand. A longtime graphic designer in the surf industry, McBride’s oil pastels are inspired by the lush foliage and rugged, sublime scenery of Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud).
The surf art of John Holm
About the artist: Seattle-based but surf-stoked, Holm spent many years surfing in California and Hawaii. Just because Holm is now in Washington, however, doesn’t mean his surfing days have faded into the sunset. He surfs on the coast in Westport. He works in oils, gouache and acrylics and his work is sold in Seattle, Hawaii and New York’s Long Island.
The surf art of Bob Phillips
About the artist: Purple Heart veteran of the Korean War, Bob “Lefty” Phillips is in his 80s and still surfs a few times a week in Huntington Beach, CA. “Surfing drives my art and painting helps me enjoy surfing,” says Lefty, who has been married over 60 years and paints mostly surfboards, beaches, surf, seascapes, lifeguard towers, beach houses and buildings. Lefty has done corporate commissioned art for businesses in several countries.
The surf art of Pete Tillack
About the artist: Featured in the prestigious Art Business News, Tillack creates breathtaking waterscapes with an earth-friendly message. The Australian-born artist is referred to by some of his collectors as a “Master of Mood”. This is a compliment to his paintings; not a gripe about his personality. “In the surfing community, we use the phrase ‘the wave is like a canvas;’ it allows the surfer to create whatever he wants using the power and energy [of the waves] and the surfboard as a brush,” says Tillack. In 1993, Tillack abandoned his job as an electrician in Australia to take a seven-year, surf-inspired sabbatical around the world. He currently lives in San Diego.
The surf art of Kem McNair
About the artist: In the surf world, there are two very well-known Kems: novelist Kem Nunn and surf artist and photographer Kem McNair. Though equally adept at both surf art and photography, McNair’s sharp and divinely-timed photos have made him a sensation in his New Smyrna Beach, Florida home and beyond. McNair’s shot of a leaping shark as well as others including beautiful whale flukes have received hundreds of thousands of visitors. McNair has been painting on surfboards since the ’60s, an era which saw him win the East Coast Surfing Championship. As for his art, it really speaks for itself. Billabong CEO purchased one of McNair’s surfboard art creations at a charity for $20,000. That says something, too.
The surf art of Jay Alders:
About the artist: At the start of 2011, Jay Alders was named best surf artist of the decade by a Brazilian surf magazine. His work has also been featured on the cover of Surfer’s Path magazine and Alma Surf Magazine (the same magazine who declared him best artist). Alders has too many accolades to mention here. The New-Jersey born artist is a dedicated philanthropist and animal rights supporter.
The surf art of Spencer Reynolds as featured on ArtandSurf.com
About the artist: Spencer Reynolds grew up in a place far removed from the pristine beaches and ideal conditions of typical surf spots like in Southern California, Hawaii or other tropical paradises. Reynolds grew up in a blue collar fishing town along the Oregon coast. As a young boy, bodysurfing and boarding without a wetsuit (his parents thought he’d eventually outgrow wanting to go down to the beach), Reynolds developed a rugged sense of stoke. His art portrays the “graceful tension” that surfing is.
The surf art of Frank Errickson
About the artist: Errikson has been working with stained glass since the age of just nine. His father made ukuleles and his mother a jeweler and potter. Although he’s a talented painter, Errikson focuses these days on his childhood craft of stained glass. He says of the creative process, “While there are always multiple elements and design aspects to a stained glass window, a successful piece for me is one whose colors are front-and-center, where the glass speaks for itself, and the viewer is transported to a place of serenity and peace.”
Premiering the Surf Art of VJ Kelly:
About the artist: We don’t know much about VJ Kelly, hopefully he’ll get his own website soon and update us with a bio. What we do know is that we really like his graphic design surf art. We’ll update his bio as soon as we get one from him. VJ does have a cool video presentation of his surf art on his Facebook page. Click the link on his name above.
Surf Art by Glenn Martin
About the Artist: Costa Mesa, CA resident Glenn Martin’s surf art manifests the golden era of surfing. Think San Onofre and woodies and Miki Dora and longboard fun at Waikiki. His unmistakable style captures the essence of living and playing in Southern California and the South Pacific.
Surf Art by Michael Cassidy
About the artist: Michael Cassidy is considered one of the top surf artists to depict the idyllic South Pacific lifestyle. His works provide a backdrop of surfing, travel, faith and family, all of which are deeply ingrained in each stroke. Few people know that Cassidy has been painting Native American art for many years. Cassidy has traveled and surfed and swam many of these islands and these waters depicted in his art. He has met and lived with South Pacific natives.
Surf Art by Wade Koniakowsky
About the artist: Texas-born and now Carlsbad, CA resident Koniakowsky is quickly emerging as one of the top surf oil painters in the business. He has ditched his full-time advertising career to focus on soulful surf art. Plenty of clients are knocking on his door. Wade prefers to work with oils over acrylics. He says, “Oil is just the best paint, with centuries of tradition backing it. It has great elasticity, opacity, and luminosity. And it’s more natural, made from ore, dirt, minerals, things that come from the earth. It’s more soulful.”
Surf Art by DrewBrophy
About the artist: Popular but counter-culture/psychedelic surf artist Drew Brophy proved his high school guidance counselor wrong, who told him that he couldn’t just surf and paint his way through life. Along with his wife, Maria, Brophy runs an art business Son of the Sea, and has guided numerous startup artists to launch a career doing something they love. The Brophy family has surfed and traveled around the world.
Surf Art by John Severson of SurferArt.com
About the artist: Though Severson is best known as the founder of Surfer Magazine, he is a legend in modern surf culture for far more reasons than being one of the first to document the then-underground sport and lifestyle of surfing. One of the first surf film makers as well, Severson saw the writing on the wall when President Nixon established a beach-head Western White House in San Clemente. Severson picked up and moved his family to Maui, where he continued to photograph and paint the visceral beauty that many of us pine for or wish we would have lived through.
Surf Art by PatrickParker
About the artist: On the side Parker still dabbles in the freelance design world where he creates everything from CD covers to wine labels to magazine and advertising layouts. But his true love is surf art. Painting and drawing took a back seat out of college as Patrick tried his hand in the design world to try to make a living. After working one year as an Art Director at a boutique advertising agency in Santa Monica, Patrick and a couple of his close friends packed up and headed to the Caribbean for a year. In St. Thomas he spent most of his days relaxing in the sun, surfing, fishing, hiking, snorkeling, and, oh yeah, working a little bit on the beach at The Ritz-Carlton or pulling up the sails on a 65-foot catamaran.
Surf Art by Robb Havassy
About the artist: The term soul surfer gets thrown around a lot, especially on this website. Soul is in the eye of the beholder. While some may say that Havassy eliminated himself from being soul because of his high-profile modeling career for the likes of Ralph Lauren, we say that Havassy is soul as much as any salty-dog San O’ Woodie-driving longboarder. Havassy is a prolific surf artist whose work is heavily featured in the Surf Story project.
