"A perfect canvas.........

.........and I was just along for the ride!" The incredibly talented Kelly Slater's comment on a 10 point ride during the semi-final of the Pro event held in Fiji this week that he eventually won. As soon as I heard this comment I knew there was a post in it and started a draft ready to complete on another day. So here we go. My first thought on hearing that comment was "And a surf mat is the perfect brush for me!" Let me tell you a story.
My longtime partner Michelle is an artist and has been so all her life. I am talking the real deal here, not just someone who paints pretty pictures, but one who produces deep and meaningful images based on her lifelong quest for a greater consciousness.

Like all true creative artists, she has struggled big time with her art and particularly so in the last 6 years as she works towards completing a Doctor of Creative Arts. This involves creating a written thesis (the easy bit!) and a body of work, consisting in this case of 4 huge 2.4 X 2.4 metre paintings of which 3 look like they will be submitted. Although she has painted all her life, Michelle has always considered that her main talent is in drawing and the exploration of form (she is also a talented sculptress) rather than painting and colour. Even though she has produced many, many paintings she has always struggled with using brushes and a wide range of colour. Recently, (after 35 years!) she suddenly had a breakthrough, discarding her brushes. She started using the palette knife exclusively and a more drawing like way to apply the paint using only enough colour to allow her to portray the forms she required.
So in the end it is all about finding the right tool for any given situation. For riding waves, a surf mat is the best tool for me as I don't feel a need to dominate them but more to immerse myself completely and utterly allowing them to dictate the experience of the moment. It's a feeling thing, and as I grow older, I seem to be seeking out experiences that allow me to experience greater depths of it.



I am heading this way musically too as I start to immerse myself heavily in to the world of jazz played on the piano about as intense a musical experience of emotion and feeling as it is possible to attain. Today, a superb previously unreleased double cd of the Bill Evans Trio live at the Top of the Gate venue in 1968 was released. Do get your hands on it if you are in to jazz at all!
The perfect wave painting by Eve Thompson.