This is the latest in my painting creations. This painting is 6'x4'. The paint application is varied in thickness and stroke. I think that this is a direction that I would love to explore more in depth. I enjoy the rendering aspect but I also allowed myself to paint outside of the lines so to speak. I like the contrast of realistic images painted with a loose style. The paint is splattered in areas and smeared on thick in others. I would probably describe this style as expressive realism.

The pirate board. I had a lot of fun building this board. I actually built it all the way through myself. I have forgotten how much work goes into each board. I usually shape and do the art and design and leave the glassing and so on to a team of glassers. Thank you Bob Miller for the hints on the raised pin line.

Simple

This is one of the latest boards that I've built.My goal was to use a simplified approach in the line use for the art. I wanted to keep it relatively simple in the design and color. Customers and friends that have seen the board have really liked the minimal palette and images that were used. I'm sure that I will continue to sketch more of these little characters out and use them on future board designs.

New Creations

These are a couple of pieces of art I am currently working on. The Snowy Egret is 5'x6' on canvas and the owl is a drawing that is on archive paper. Both of these pieces will be in my show at San Jose State in the fall. I will have aproximatly 10 pieces in the show.

As I cultivate my board building skills, creativity in new ideas and approaches is the spirit in which I want to see it grow. Recently, I was able to build a board for a friend's engagement present. I was asked to do an inlay of beach glass on a wood tail block. It worked out well and since then I have made a few more boards with inlays.

Above is a photo of a "Current" board I recently shaped. On this board I placed a piece of abalone near my signature. I am pleased on how it turned out and I definitely look forward to requests for inlays of objects in the future.

Conspiracy is finally in the works! Conspiracy is a label where I plan to shape high performance boards, typically shorter boards. This is a photo of an epoxy board that I shaped for good friend of mine in S.F. This board will hopefully see the inside of a lot of Ocean Beach barrels!

Currently, I am shaping boards for some guys who will do some "R&D" for me. It's exciting to see where this all goes. I am working on getting some computer templates for the Conspiracy label. In the future I will be using the computer to aid my shaping for the high performance boards.

Before I get too far ahead of myself I should give a huge thanks to my good friend Peter Thomsen for helping me in designing my logos. He has been a great help and encouragement to me. "Thanks Peter Mahn!"

I have been interested in shaping boards more reminiscent of the sixties and seventies designs. Single fin noseriders are some of my favorites. Recently my friend Alex came to me and asked If I would shape a board that would ride well on the nose as well as off the tail.

One of the requests was that it have a painting on the bottom that was similar to a painting I made on a old glass window. I really enjoyed building the board. Putting art on the board forced me to try some new methods in mark making. I was very happy with the results.

I am excited for future projects and developments of painting. Thanks Alex for the board order, I had a great time building it!