Yannick Surfscape

This SurfScape was created after an incredible days surfing in the Maldives with Yannick. After one of those perfect days where everyone seemed to get just the right wave for them I got to watch Yannick surf and saw just how determined and focused he was to make the best of the wave that came to him. When we got back to shore he found out that I was an artist and that I created SurfScapes and he asked me what my artwork was like and I showed him some pieces and he really liked the look and feel of the work. I asked him what his optimum surfing experience was and he said it doesn’t get any better than today the waves were just perfect, the encouragement from the other surfers was perfect, the sunlight on the face of the wave everything. The more I asked the more I realised there was a real purity of focus in the way he not just surfed but in the way he approached life and especially the business he runs from Dubai. I wanted to get across the sense of focus by the angle of the body, the board coming off the lip of the wave and the sense of incredible potential that comes from that huge open space of wave as his arms stretches out forcing the turn out of the top of the lip. I wanted to take the perspective of being in the water looking through the back of the wave but also another perspective of actually being on the wave itself and I often try and bring multiple perspectives into the work because in that way it becomes more than just surf art it becomes a rich articulation of the real moment. When Yannick saw the piece there was just silence as he looked at it and that to me was actually one of the highest compliments, he almost was shaking his head in disbelief and ore and was filled with real emotion at the quality of the work which says as much about him as a surfer as it does about my ability to capture that as an artist.

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