Surf art rides wave

When surfer and starving artist John Severson showed his work at a Laguna Beach gallery in 1955, his boldly colored abstract paintings of lo...

When surfer and starving artist John Severson showed his work at a Laguna Beach gallery in 1955, his boldly colored abstract paintings of long-boarders and the California coast didn8217;t set the art world on fire. Severson left as hungry as when he arrived, selling one piece for 35. A half-century later, he returned to Laguna for two shows at the Surf Gallery on Pacific Coast Highway. This time, hundreds turned out. Eager buyers snapped up scores of Severson8217;s oils and watercolors, some costing thousands of dollars.

Severson8217;s art had clearly arrived. So had the genre he pioneered. During the past decade, a number of artists with roots in Southern California have found that surfing is their muse. What was once a hobby for surfers with a knack for painting has been building in popularity, fueled by affluent aficionados of the sport and an industry grown rich on the fat of the sand.

Collections of surf art have been making the rounds of museums across the country. Galleries dedicated to the genre are opening, and paintings that were once ignored by collectors now command as much as 75,000. 8216;8216;Surf art in the 1970s and 1980s was really slow business,8217;8217; said Gordon T McClelland, a Santa Ana art dealer, collector and historian. 8216;8216;It8217;s gone from six or seven people painting with any consistency to more than 60 people today, probably more.8217;8217;

Surf artists run the gamut of styles. They work in oils, watercolor and ink. Some print images using hand-carved wood blocks. Others create mixed-media works. At its best, surf art conveys the 8216;8216;stoke8217;8217; of the sport, the physical and mental euphoria that comes from a well-ridden wave. Its practitioners connect with nature, capture coastal landmarks threatened by development and reflect romanticised rituals such as waxing boards.

Although European and American artists have been capturing surf scenes for more than a century, it was Severson, the founder of Surfer magazine who popularised the genre. He began painting surfers and beach scenes in the mid-1950s as an art student at California State University. Without a market for his art, Severson occasionally used his magazine as a showcase. In 1963, he placed Surf Be Bop, a bold abstract painting, on the cover. The work, in bright shades of red, orange and yellow, depicts two surfers lounging on a beach with their boards on a hot summer day. It won national recognition and demonstrated that surf art could be fine art.

Like Severson, Wolfgang Bloch, 42, of Laguna Beach is an abstract artist. But his highly textured work often blends paint with scrap metal, matchboxes, wood, posters and photographs. 8216;8216;I don8217;t do pictures of palms and perfect waves peeling,8217;8217; said Bloch. 8216;8216;My work is more abstract, simplified. It8217;s about imaginary landscapes created by color and texture.8217;8217; Colleen Hanley of San Clemente is one of the few women in the field. Two months ago, she became the official artist for Surfing America, the sport8217;s national governing body. Her work will be used for promotions and to raise money. 8216;8216;I was always drawing waves in class in high school. I8217;d envision the dream wave to get me through the day,8217;8217; said Hanley, 28.

In contrast, the work of Michael Cassidy of northern San Diego County are marked by a realistic style that faithfully depicts wahines female surfers, surfers riding massive waves and the tropical landscapes of Tahiti and Hawaii. Other artists bring to mind the California Impressionists of the early 1900s: coastlines, canyons, deserts, mountains and rugged foothills. 8216;8216;Those dead guys made it possible for us to make a living at this,8217;8217; said artist Kevin Short, 45.

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Early works by Severson8212;some of the ones he had a hard time selling as a young man8212;now command prices of up to 20,000. At the Surfrider event in October, a 12-ft surfboard that became a canvas for artist Julian Schnabel sold at auction for 75,000.

Los Angeles Times