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This is the painting that started it all. Unfortunately, the original art for Sundek is lost; there is a big reward for that painting if ever found. A footnote: in the Sebastian Inlet tube is Lewis Graves - father to Dylan Graves of Puerto Rico. And doing the cutback on the shoulder is Matt Kechele, Kelly Slater's coach in Florida. Ken Bradshaw is in the background.
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This was the cover of SURFER Magazine in Dec. 1982. I was 21 when I did that fresh out of art school. Gary Propper, the East Coast Surfing Champion, was my agent. Paul Holmes, the Editor at SURFER at the time, saw my double page ad for Sundek Surfwear of Florida with their pros at Sebastian Inlet and asked me to make one of the ASP World Tour for the cover. I had five days to paint that (during one of the best swells of the end of hurricane season). It's one of only four illustrated covers in SURFER’s history. The others were by John Severson, Rick Griffin and Bob Penuelas.
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This is the more recent caricature piece I did for Chris Mauro at SURFER 25 years later (It almost made the cover). I ended up selling it to Kelly Slater. This actually became the inspiration for a series of posters for Billabong World Tour events in 2008. Andy Irons is pictured in a Teahupoo barrel in that painting – which is now very sadly a treasure.
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This is a 5' oil painting on canvas portrait of Leroy Grannis taking that famous shot of Dewey Weber doing that hard cutback right in front of him at 22nd St. at Hermosa Beach 1966. It's the color painting version for the outdoor bronze I'm sculpting for the City entrance. I did the painting to raise funds for the sculpture. It's on display at the Hermosa Beach Art Museum.
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Art for the Billabong Pro Mundaka.
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This painting of Uluwatu was featured in the fine art auction at Surfrider’s 25th Anniversary fund raising event.
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This is the painting for the lower half of the Ultimate Wave Tahiti movie poster. It's a fully detailed oil painting that took six weeks. Tim McKenna, a surf photographer in Tahiti, kindly provided me with all the wonderful photo references of the reef under Teahupoo. The Tahitian Tourist board requested the specific species of fish in the painting. I had to be super tight on the detail keeping in mind that the painting was going to be blown up for 30 foot banners to hang on the outside of the theaters. It's a really beautiful painting. The water blues are amazingly deep. I wish everyone could see the original.
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This is an 11"x14" oil on panel portrait of Kelly Slater for the Ultimate Wave Tahiti. I had to give him nicer open eyes and take out the grimacing brow ridge in his forehead from the photograph I used to make him sexier for the poster.
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This is the bronze sculpture I've done for Pipeline for the last 15 years. It's based on the Pipe poster I did in '96. Every Pipeline Master winner has received one of these, so that's very cool for me. The next step is for me to sculpt a life size version of this in bronze for Ehukai Beach. I hope to take that on next year.
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This is a 21" tall bronze portrait of Greg I did for a trade for one of his beautiful boards. Greg has the only one so far. Haven't gotten around to casting any more yet. Greg asked me to wipe the smile off of his face on the sculpture: one takes Third reef Pipe very seriously. This is based off on John Severson’s photo of Greg at Pipe in '69. You know the image.
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This is the final set of photos of the finished trophy board for Billabong's '200 Pipeline Masters. The deck is a painting reproduction of a '70's Jeff Divine photo of Gerry Lopez. Gerry shaped the 7'2" Pipeline Gun single fin. The '08 board was black, the '09 board Red, and this year Billabong wanted yellow, so I made it gold leaf to take it over the top. I have to keep raising the bar each year. I already have ideas of topping this one for next year.
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The Surfer’s Journal photo editor Jeff Divine and me with the re-creation of his photo of Gerry cutting back at Pipe. I love collaborating on these art boards. Couldn't do it without the photographers.
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This is the Balboa Park Carousel Egg that I was a part of creating. It features my sculpture work and miniature paintings. It’s now on display at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in San Diego. It’s valued in the millions. Photo by Sylvia Bissonette.
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A portrait of the artist: Phil Roberts.
Portrait of the artist: Phil Roberts as he works on the Pipeline Masters commemorative board.
While Phil Roberts, the artist responsible for designing the Pipeline Masters trophy since 2008, seems to have carved out a niche for himself within the saturated space of surf art, Roberts seeks inspiration beyond the world of surf. Heavily influenced by European art, Roberts explores a variety of mediums from acrylics to airbrushes to bronze sculpture and architecture. Roberts considers himself to be a renaissance artist, and his wide variety of patrons (from Billabong to Hollywood to San Diego’s Natural History Museum) reflects his tastes.
“I basically wanted to be a combination of Michelangelo and surfing with a little bit of Walt Disney,” said Roberts.
Originally from Melbourne, Florida, Roberts began free-hand drawing when he was five years old. Over time, he developed not only a love for surfing, but also his talent for art, which began to blossom when he started airbrushing surfboards at the age of fifteen.
“As soon as I got out of high school for the day, I’d head over to the surfboard factories and paint between four and six boards in the afternoon,” said Roberts. His fascination with airbrushing surfboards, drawing caricatures, and creating paintings for local magazines led him to professional surfing’s center stage: the Pipeline Masters.
Each year, the Pipe Masters champion earns not only the prestige of the most-anticipated contest of the year, but also a couple of carefully handcrafted pieces of art. For the past three years, Roberts has been the man behind the bronze Pipe trophy. He has also collaborated with surf legend, Gerry Lopez, and photographer, Jeff Divine, to create a special 7’2’’ gun designed especially for Pipeline.
“I’m pretty happy with how it turned out,” said Roberts. “I free-hand airbrushed on the foam from Jeff’s [Divine] photo, but I had to repaint the details back into the painting to give it a more 3-D effect.”
Roberts also placed a very thin gold leaf into a red resin on the back of the board to add a little kick to this year’s piece, a very tedious task.
“This stuff is wafer thin and all the windows [in our studio] are closed,” said Roberts. “So there’s no wind and you can’t breathe because once you lay it down, it’s stuck.”
The pipe board is not the only thing Roberts has infused with gold. His most recent project, a piece know as “Balboa Park Carousel” has been eighteen years in the making and is currently featured in San Diego’s Natural History Museum.
“I actually painted the details and did the molds for the 22-karat gold for the carousel,” said Roberts. “I painted between 82 and 120 animals through a magnifying glass with nothing but a toothpick to erase.”
The “Balboa Park Carousel” egg depicts the carousel’s surface details in 22-karat gold, platinum, and diamonds. Many other gems were also applied to this intricate creation, which is encased in red gioche enamel that gives the egg its color. It sits atop of a 120 year-old restored music box, which plays 20 Victorian and Edwardian tunes.
“Phil is the most fundamentally authentic artist I’ve ever worked with,” said jewelry designer Jim Grahl who collaborated with Roberts on the carousel. “He has a blessing to be a remarkable human being and a remarkable artist, and those two don’t always go together.”
For his future surf creations, Roberts hopes to combine the intricate design concepts of these eggs and his passion for surfing.
“I often think what if Carl Faberge was a surfer,” said Roberts. “I want to take everything I know about jewelry and apply it to a surfboard.”
If his ambitions stay true, Roberts might just create the most valuable surfboard we’ve ever seen. – Jackie Connor
