It all started…
Well if you want to know where I really got started, I was in grade school and I used to doodle. I would draw a lot of military scenes. Stickmen fighting, explosions, planes etc. When I was told all of that “death and destruction, was unbecoming of a student of my stature”, I started random lines and squiggles that when looked at a certain way, would give each viewer a different picture. I then went to mechanical drawing of buildings since I wanted to become an architect. That fizzled out and I gave up on art until after high school, when wanting to explore colour. I decided to give up drawing almost altogether, and paint. A good buddy of mine had an MFA, gave me a few colour theory and application tips and off I went. Totally self-taught. I am very good at looking at a style, tweaking it, assimilating it, and spitting out my own version.
So what's your art all about Nathan?
My style has been referred to this: “If Jackson Pollack, Cézanne and Duccio melded into a painting surfer, it would be Nathan Paul Gibbs”. As you can see from my art samples, I dabble in many styles sometimes combining more than one. My overall theme centres on the environment and our relationship with it. I try to give life to the lifeless, and send a message. Every painting I do, minus the floral ones, beckons the viewer to figure out the message and theme. Much of my art has hidden images. My work revolves around, transcends and invokes a sense of wonder within an ocean-nurtured lifestyle. Through the exploration of surf, water landscapes, peoples faces and rural images I free the boundaries of their realistic attributes. Opening the dream-like qualities of moments revisited, thoughts recognized and landscapes explored
Through the use of acrylic on panel I loosely apply the paint trying only to control the content leaving the nature created waves of wood grain often exposed. The found object sculptures I create openly reinvent the energy of ocean waves and the way they move, form and break. I take an optimistic point of view trying to imagine surf everywhere and paying respect to the idea that wood gave us surfing. . I also create hand turned wood bowls, bitiks, digital art, furniture, and found wood sculptures.
How long have you been enjoying the life of an artist?
Well if you count my childhood, then always. But, as a true artist in the sense that I leave a part of my soul on every piece, and then sell it, for about the last 15 years.
Can you give our readers a quick run through on what it takes to make one of your amazing pieces
Amazingly this is a tough question to answer. While most artists have defined style and each piece uses the same process, not every piece of mine has the same method. In fact I may have 3-5 pieces going at one time each in a different style. Some I whip out in 8-10 hours, some I have been tweaking for years. I don’t ever consider a painting finished until it is sold and out of my possession.
I may put magenta on one piece, look over to another and wipe that same colour in a haphazard fashion on another. Some are planned; some are random from the paint left over from the planned. Then I get to the later stages and define it with details. My “Workbench Monologues Series” is like that. I truly do not know the end product until the end. Others are planned from the start. My favourites tend to be the unplanned. It is like I keep opening a present, sent to me from my future self with each brushstroke.
So let me give you a general sense of my style. Most of my work in the last 3 years has been strictly on wood panel however I have used it since the start. It is much more malleable, cheaper, and more importantly that it was once living. From water comes wood. The wood grain plays a major role. I comb the lumber stores looking for a piece that tells me something. They all have a story to tell. I just turn the woods’ words into picture. Once the piece is chosen, I generally pick an overall colour scheme (cool, warm, earthy etc.) For landscapes, I quickly sketch on top of the wood grain any images I may see. Faces, waves, islands, or anything else that jumps off.
Then I apply the paint, loosely affixing the colour layers. Once again, depending on the style I choose, I may then focus on one aspect of the piece, giving it depth and detail. I think when you view my work; you will see why I have trouble answering this question!
Where may we have seen some of your amazing work?
My work has been in Longboard Magazine, Water Magazine, a few issues of Alma Surf, Location 3, and other local pubs. I have an ongoing exhibit at both Beachfire Restaurant Galleries in Orange County with over 30 pieces on exhibit. I have a couple of pieces in the California Surf Museum’s permanent collection as well. Online you can see my entire body of work at an art site I founded, DefineArt.com, also NathanGibbsArt.com, MeSurf (wink), and soon Waveriders Gallery. You can also see a book I wrote an illustrated, “The Betrayal of Man, Water a story of what is and what will be.” This contains some of my earlier work. Check it at TheBetrayalOfMan.com
And what’s your connection with the ocean and surfers?
I grew up around water from birth, then started competitive Body Boarding for a few years and was ranked as high as 7th in the US as an amateur. Then got bored with that and have surfer now for 14 years. Long board, short board, fish, quad, you name it, I ride it. The ocean and surfers play a big part in my work. I consider us all messengers of the ocean. That is why I do a lot of philanthropic work for water related non-profits and children’s’ charities.