"CO2 Rescue" by Nathan Paul Gibbs, Acrylic on Panel

‘Enviro-Surf’ artist and proclaimed “Earth’s Minister of Propaganda”, Nathan Paul Gibbs was born in Washington State on the Kitsap Peninsula, and raised from 13 on, in North East Florida where he picked up surfing. Since 1999 he lives and works on his art career in South Orange County. Nathan has created surf art work internationally in Fiji, Bora Bora, Moorea, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii and Australia and has shown work in over 6 countries. His work has exhibited and has collectors in Florida, Washington, Oregon, New York, Hawaii, South America, Ireland, Sweden and of course California. He has been in over 60 gallery exhibits, shows, fairs, and been featured in 29 web and print publications. He has created over 400 pieces of art, much of it environmentally based. Self taught, he is influenced by Pollock, Van Gough, Cezanne, and others. In addition Nathan wrote and illustrated the acclaimed environmentally conscious story and art book, The Betrayal of Man. Nathan was awarded the 2007 1st Annual Earth Day: "GAIA" Environmental Award for his constant efforts in providing philanthropic support to water related charities. To date his contributions through his art to the Surfrider Foundation and Surf Aid international and various other charities have raised over $32,000..
Taking his paintings to a deeper level, Nathan invokes participation from the viewer with a visual, emotional, and cognitive experience. Many pieces attempt to do more than just paint a beautiful wave, or a pretty sunset. It is about a memory, issue or environmental message.

Artist Statement -

My art revolves around, transcends and invokes a sense of wonder within an ocean-nurtured lifestyle. Through the exploration of water landscapes, peoples faces and rural images, I free the boundaries of their realistic attributes. I open the dream-like qualities of moments revisited, thoughts recognized, and landscapes explored.

There are many ways that I portray a subject, muted themes, political sarcasm, and disguised messages, developed through the application of painting, chemical, and textual techniques. 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 surf art, found object and hardware sculptures I create openly reinvent the energy of ocean waves and the way they move, form and break. Much of my work reveals the relationships between energy, water, life and emotion and how those create and destroy our natural world, specifically the ocean. Using art to document the environmental struggles of the times, the works relay a message. Through surrealistic symbolism, Byzantine inspired iconography, and hidden images, I invoke participation from the viewer with a visual, emotional, and cognitive experience.