ned evans: from the studio

Envirosax and art

2012-01-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the video of a dolphin playing with a plastic bag as it floats in the ocean, subsequently getting trapped by it (don't worry, he eventually escapes)? Whales, seals, dolphins, and turtles ingest these bags and less than one percent of the one million plastic bags used per minute are recycled. If you haven't already done so, it's time to make a conscious change. Get reusable cloth bags and stop using plastic. Even better, get an Envirosax bag and you can have one of my paintings on it.

That's right. While this is not my usual thing, when Envirosax contacted me by way of the Surfrider Foundation, interested in using one of my paintings on their bags, I checked out their back story and mission and couldn't refuse. Theirs is a great company with a conscience: We believe in environmental sustainability. Plastic bags clog drains and cause flooding. They pollute rivers and streams, killing animals and destroying plantlife. They take years to photodegrade and have a very short life span. Envirosax provide a compelling alternative to the plastic bags which are doing so much damage to our planet.

(Mine is the one on the far left! The original painting is called Cambay.)

Fun + surf-y group show + Mexico revisited

2011-07-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

We went back to San Juanico at the beginning of last month. It was, as expected, dusty, dry, hot, and windy. In between tacos and surf, I painted in my makeshift Mexico studio while Rebecca read and wrote. This vantage point of the Pacific is quite captivating and even when the surf wasn't kicking, it was great to be near this side of the sea.

Also, if you're in the Southern California area next week, please check out the Surf's Up group show in Palos Verdes, opening on Friday, July 22nd. Curated by Jacqueline Dreager and likely going to be a really fun time. Read about it here.

scorpion bay travels, green/flash surf, and good causes

2011-05-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been traveling a bit lately, taking advantage of some good surf and getting laughs and inspiration from the company I'm keeping and the colors I'm encountering.The Marshall brothers and I (shown below with friends during our recent Scorpion Bay trip) brought heaps of free sneakers down to Baja. The kids and adults went bananas, even the smallest ones.

Speaking of good karma and passing it on, I'm donating a small abstract work to Project Angel Food, an inspiring organization located in downtown L.A. that provides free and nutritious meals to men, women, and children with cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases. My piece will be part of the GetArt4 fund raising event, with over 200 pieces of art donated and 100% of the profits going to Project Angel Food. A seriously good cause - art and humanity combined.

I've got some surfy pieces at greenflashartshop in Cardiff and the opening reception for "New Wave" is this weekend - Saturday, the 14th, if you're in the area from 5-9 pm. Ash Francomb and Kris Boline DeGrazio, co-owners of Greenflash, heavily into art and yoga, have been a complete breeze to work with. Check out their blog for info on past and future shows, as well as more scoop on "New Wave."

huffington post shout-out

2011-02-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Peter Clothier, great writer, thinker, and generally great person, for the kind words on my William Turner show on the huffington post. I just recently discovered his TED talk, which focuses on the "calling" each of us has and the importance of following it, as well as the paths we create to get there (or to clumsily attempt avoiding it). Good stuff, Peter.

Find out more about Peter by visiting his site and reading about his newest book, which I'm definitely going to be reading soon.

william turner opening follow-up

2011-01-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

a great crowd showed up for saturday night's opening. thanks to all who were in attendance, SWELL peeps included, of course. it was a good time...show is up until march 12th. check it out here.

a rapt and lovely viewer

revellers

the crowd

me and jacqueline, the Everywoman of NYC

east coast show - 11 in 11

2011-01-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

while my west coast show is soon to be hung in the next couple of weeks, i've got a few works on paper in this group show at nahcotta, a great gallery-cum-boutique run by deb thompson in bucolic portsmouth, nh. deb knows what she's doing with nahcotta and it's worth checking out, in person or online.

snubasaurus, jogu, hawaiian waves

2010-12-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

i'm currently absorbed with pulling together the work for my upcoming show at the william turner gallery, opening on saturday, january 29th. introducing jogu (78" x 94"):

went to the northshore with my buddy olson, visiting with our pal scotty (golden-globe nominated!) in order to get my hawaii five-o fix. one evening, at dusk, i got this shot. pink sky and blue sea. most excellent. and the ping-pong games were epic, to boot.

upon my return, i designed a new board along with the help of shaper scott anderson. i wanted to make a fun, super functional board i've dubbed the "snubasaurus" (a 7'0"). test rides have proven it be a truly successful endeavor.

mele kalikimaka from the studio.
cheers!

H20s in Venice

2010-10-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

come check out a collection of my h20 paintings at james' beach. a little fete to celebrate the show happens this sunday from 4-6 p.m. if you're in the 'hood, come on by. if you can't make it this weekend, the work will be up for a healthy stretch, so stop by whenever you can in the forthcoming weeks. happy autumn and h20s.

who's afraid of red, yellow, and blue?

2010-09-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

here's a bit of the new work in the studio, an installation currently called "who's afraid of red, yellow, and blue?" measuring 60"high x 144"wide.

lucie has been riding this classic board of mine (on the right) and fred became insanely jealous, so i had another one made, fondly called "the red sled." the dogs can't wait to hit the waves, obviously. and the new board has quickly become one of my favorites, too.

rapt board dogs
it was the summer of swell, replete with barbecues and barbie-q's. more of this to come in varied variations. the story continues...venice to venice, a book in the works, stay tuned.

swell SWELL

2010-07-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

swell continues. and in the words of the incomparable CR Stecyk:

“I gladly would have traded anything for those sparkling glass bubbles. A genuine infatuation for phenomenology is a requirement for participation. Something like this requires three gigantic spaces in Chelsea. A Stone Age Polynesian pursuit governed by Gods. I never would have guessed or envisioned this. But after all, Gotham is a true island culture.”

check out the evergrowing swell here

it's SWELL time

2010-06-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

We're headed to steamy New York City for the opening of SWELL on July 1st, launched at three Chelsea locations: Nyehaus, Metro Pictures and Friedrich Petzel Gallery, the SWELL art exhibition is a merging of West and East coast cultures featuring the work of over fifty artists (myself included), documenting the art movements of Los Angeles and New York, these urban environs and their oceanic proximity, over the course of several decades.

costa rica + palm desert

2010-02-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

January marks the annual retreat to Costa Rica with artist/skateboarding legend Steve Olson, a longstanding friend, to find new energy, surf a bit, and create some travel-size art. Below are some of the highlights, including the view of the seated guard in front of the yoga platform, where I painted when I wasn't surfing or eating amazing fresh ahi tuna, rolled in sesame seeds and seared perfectly.

Also, if you're around Palm Desert this weekend, stop by the opening at Melissa Morgan Fine Art on Saturday night between 5:30 and 8 p.m. I'll have my work alongside Andy Moses, among others.

holiday shows

2009-12-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

a buyer recently emailed me this photo of one of my favorite paintings in its new home. i'm quite happy with its placement between the buddha, lucite chandelier, and stream of sunlight.

if you're near the laguna beach area this weekend, stop in to check out the surf gallery art show on saturday, december 19th. join us for some holiday revelry and art-gazing. these guys (i.e. Will and Charles) do a bang-up job of curating and hanging a good show. here's a mini sneak peek of my land/seascapes:

happy holidays to all of you and your loved ones.

opening and onward

2009-11-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

the opening was a fantastic time and i'm so thankful to all of you who made the effort to come out to bergamot to see the commencement of the show. here are a few shots from the "inside the prism" exhibition:

(little freddie, looking for art patrons)

("inside the prism" and "saburo")

(here i am talking to my friend steve galloway)

it's been busy, busy, busy since the show, so i apologize for the lag in posts. this friday, eta la ii hits the walls of living room in silver lake. i'll have some tiny landscapes in this show of 26 different west coast artists and i'll post some pics of them soon. you can also see them here.

It's showtime. INSIDE THE PRISM is ready to roll.

2009-11-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

It's been an incredibly busy week around here, so my apologies for not writing sooner. My William Turner Gallery show, Inside The Prism, has just been installed and the opening is this Saturday, November 7th, from 6:30 to 8:30. Hope you can make it to Bergamot and join in the arty festivities!

I'll post photos from the opening next week.

Until then,
happy November.

Countdown

2009-10-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Another one from my upcoming show at William Turner - opening is Saturday, November 7th, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.. Mark your calendars. I'd love to see you there. This one, Cremesicle, measures in at 80"h x 72"w.

A very close companion wrote this about my upcoming show. Hope it inspires you to check out what coexists "Inside The Prism":

Inside the prism, hues twist and torque, hazy in spots, vivid and electrified in others. At once atmospheric and otherworldly, the newest paintings from artist Ned Evans are a carnivale trompe l’oeil – a sumptuous, gorgeous ride of unexpected colors twisted around one another. While some are more terrestrial, grounded by the strong vertical lines and solid colors that create a stable foundation for the refractions speaking in the foreground, most of these works are wonderfully, transcendentally orbital. Purity of color and expression seem to drive the cosmos of these spacey tendrils. Released from rigid cerebral tenacity, this collection is about intensity and emotion from the core; it’s as though a sort of automatism takes over until the creator is completely spent or the painting is finished. Sometimes these events are simultaneous, sometimes one overrides the other. Whichever occurs, the result is a verdant mix of fractures, interwoven stripes of sound and color, begging you to climb into the glowing tableaus and experience a planetary shift. Calling Major Tom. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

new painting preview

2009-10-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

here's a new one for the william turner show. meet Kalli (30x80).

yukes

2009-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

on saturday night, my girlfriend and i took fred for a southern sojourn and trekked down to laguna beach to check out the myriad ukeleles adorned for this event. will and charles of the surf gallery down in laguna beach work tirelessly to make these happenings exist. incredibly inventive, super nice guys, they're so easy to work with and they're so supportive of the surfrider relationship, it's great to know them and be a part of their vision. for this event, part of the billabong cosmic creek event, surfers/artists were asked to paint ukeleles in whatever form, fashion, or manner we deemed fit. the uke arrived and you hit the ground running.
here's mine:
some of the others were so ingenious and beautiful:

fred and surf stories

2009-09-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

the surf story project, 444 pages of tales and images from 88 "of the most influential and creative surfers" from around the globe and described as "the motherload of a collective surf memory" is finally ready to roll. check out the site here or have a look at the facebook fan page to read the stories and get a sense of the scope of the project. by the way, book sales benefit surfrider, so there's further inspiration for you to support the project, if your curiosity and generosity weren't sufficiently piqued. a labor of love for artist/surfer robb havassy, i think it turned out awesome.

in other decidedly less literary news, as chance would have it, we've taken on a rescue pup within the last month, making the human-to-animal ratio at the studio space two to five. but with another rescue dog in our midst, a gentlemanly elder jack russell, and a couple of black cats (property of the girlfriend), the four-month-old rescue pup, now named fred, seemed to complete the furry brood. as evinced by these photos, fred is a popular scamp around these parts, and was equally popular at eric johnson's opening last night at will turner's.

msa party

2009-09-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

we're heading to this party tomorrow night. you should go, too. sure to be a blast and all for fun and philanthropy, of course.

this weekend also marks the annual MSA Classic, held up at Malibu. I'll be surfing in the early evening heat, so check it out if you're around Malibu! From the site:

"The MSA Classic is the premier competition in the Coalition of Surﬁng Clubs annual series. This club-level, invitational contest will be held at Surfrider Beach, Malibu from September 12-13, 2009. More than 275 invited athletes representing elite surﬁng clubs from California, Hawaii, the East Coast, Japan, and Australia will come together to compete at First Point, Malibu, one of surﬁng’s legendary waves."

One more thing: this is the BIG opening weekend at Bergamot. Art, art lovers, and lookieloos abound.

see you there.

william turner + epic wave renderings

2009-09-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

It’s been an incredibly prolific and busy summer in the studio – new paintings, new dogs, new sources of inspiration. And it all happens right here in the ivy-covered sanctuary:

For the last year and a half, I’ve been assembling my solo show for the William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station, where I've been represented since 2004. The work hits the walls on November 7th, but for sneak peeks, stay tuned. For now, check out Rita (36" x 30"):

Also, Surfrider is celebrating their 25th anniversary on October 9th at the California Science Center. Surfrider asked 25 artists to create their own rendering of one of 25 infamous waves from around the globe. I was fortunate enough to be among the chosen ones (Alex Weinstein, David Lloyd , etc.); the paintings are slotted to be auctioned off at the October 9th event. Not only is this going to be an awesome party with live tunes from Camp Freddy, among others, all proceeds go to the foundation to help fund all of the amazing things that they do. Buy your ticket here. And here's a preview of my version of Queensland, Australia's notorious Superbank: