I love it because it’s where I started with art 30 years ago – and it takes me around the world surfing and meeting cool people.
In September I traveled Indonesia, surfing and painting boards. That surf trip evolved into a month-long Posca painting workshop party!
Everywhere I went, people asked me to show them how to paint with Posca Paint Pens. Kids, surfers, old guys, everyone was joining in on painting.
I’ll tell you more about Indo later, but for now, I want to tell you about my online Posca surfboard painting courses and WHY I’m giving away my painting process in both aFREE intro version as well as an in-depth PAID version.
It’s because I love sharing the stoke of art, and I know without a doubt that the Posca painting process that I use can literally change people’s lives.
My goal has always been to share my process with everyone who wants it.
But, there was one problem and that was: how could I reach ALL the people that want to know how?
For years I’ve had people ask a ton of questions about painting boards:
How do you prepare the surface before painting?
What’s the best medium to paint a surfboard?
How do I find ideas for my sketch?
How do you seal the painting so it never washes off the surfboard?
What sealer do you use?
There are so many peeps asking questions that I stopped trying to answer them one-on-one because it’s not possible to answer hundreds of questions a week.
And then my wife Maria and I figured out HOW to reach all of those people: we invested in a film crew and a new website and we created a very in-depth video course on How to Paint A Surfboard. It took months to develop and now you can get it here.
BUT, we found that sometimes people aren’t ready to dive totally in and take the course, they just want one question answered.
So, then I developed something for those who aren’t ready to invest in a complete course: a FREE INTRO to painting a surfboard – a 14 day e-mail course that gives the basics. You can access that HERE.
LEAVE A COMMENT if you have any questions about my surfboard painting courses. I’d love to hear from you.
Life is Good – Drew
Brophy Art Gallery and Studio
PO Box 836
San Clemente, CA 92674
“Everything we’ve been taught about the origins of civilization may be wrong.” Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, PhD, senior geologist with the Research Center for Geotechnology
I’m excited to start the year with a painting series called ANCIENT OBSERVERS. (Click Here for a time-lapse of me painting Viracocha, God of the Incas.)
Most of my paintings are commissioned and I don’t always get to paint what I want. But this series is my own and I think it’s going to be one of my best.
I’m starting to understand why some of the best art comes from decades of practice and study. It’s taken me nearly thirty years to get to where I can confidently paint this current series.
As a surfer, I’ve chased waves all over the world, and some of my travels led me to stumble upon ancient sites in Peru, Tahiti and Hawaii.
I’ve always been interested in ancient cultures, even as a kid flipping through my dad’s National Geographic magazines.
During one of my adventures, something clicked and made me realize that there is a lot more to ancient wisdom than we know.
That epiphany happened in May of 2011 when I stand-up paddled the entire 225 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with my friend Seth Warren. It was a 16 day adventure that took us into some of the most inhospitable spots on the planet.
The thing about going down the Colorado River through the Canyon is this: Once you go in, you can’t come out until the end. Everything you need to survive has to be with you. You sleep in the sand. You are at one with the land. It was dangerous and intense.
What surprised me was this; the Grand Canyon has ancient structures and petroglyphs in the bottom of the canyon, in spots that are so inaccessible that it’s nearly impossible to get there.
Laying in my sleeping bag one night, staring at the bright stars in the stillness, I started thinking about ancient people and how they did things. It was so peaceful in the Grand Canyon without human devices. You are instantly connected to the natural environment. You have no choice but to be present in the NOW. It made me realize that as humans, we created a false environment that has disconnected us.
I suddenly had many questions in my head about what the ancient people knew. I began traveling to other ancient sites for answers. In the past few years I visited pyramids and ruins in places like Egypt, Bosnia and Mexico.
In sync with that, I have been hired for illustration projects that required me to do intensive research on things like structured water and agriculture.
All of these experiences have led me to this current series, ANCIENT OBSERVERS.
This series will illustrate what the ancient cultures were trying to communicate to us through their symbols, structures and art.
The first three paintings in the series are:
1 – THE SUN – The return of Viracocha and what the ancients were trying to tell us about our skies
2 – THE EARTH – Electromagnetic fields and Water’s role on earth
3 – THE GREAT YEAR – The Precession of the Equinox and what ancient people understood about it
ANCIENT OBSERVERS EXHIBIT: This series will be exhibited at Observing the Frontier Conference in Albuquerque, NM next month and also at CPAK in Newport Beach, CA in October 2019. These paintings are available for pre-purchase and sponsorship – for details, call Maria at 949-678-8133.
I’ll be painting the first three big pieces over the next few weeks; follow me on Instagram to see to the daily updates: https://www.instagram.com/drewbrophy/
If you are interested in learning more about the path that led me to this current focus, please check out my friends Jay and Chelsea Alders podcast interview with me on their SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS podcast show.
And if you’re local, I’m having a private early preview and discussion of the works by invitation only, in San Clemente. If you want to come, email mariab@drewbrophy.com for the details.
Thanks for reading this far! Life is Good,
Drew
PS: If you’re interested in the science of the sun and how it affects the earth and our climate, check out SuspiciousObservers.org – Ben Davidson gives a daily space weather report on Youtube (subscribe to his channel here) and comments on current scientific papers and breakthroughs. I begin my day each morning, listening to Ben’s daily update.
DREW BROPHY Brophy Art Gallery and Design Studio PO Box 836 San Clemente, CA 92674 store.drewbrophy.com
“Everything is dependent on everything else. We tend to forget that in our world.”Nassim Haramein
Howdy everyone. This past year’s journey around the sun has been the most enlightening of my life.
I’ve been wanting to share my recent experiences, things that have changed me. But it’s been hard to put into words.
I believe that life experience is the true measure of a man. It is not enough to educate through books or watch endless videos on a subject, because nothing replaces an experience with your own senses and your own thoughts.
My art is inspired by these experiences and they are the foundation of who I am. In the past year and a half I found myself surrounded by extraordinary thinkers.
Instead of surf adventures, I changed course and visited three different places:
1 – The mysterious Bosnian Pyramid (said to be the largest in the world)
2 – Teotihuacan, City of the Gods in Mexico, and
3 – The majestic land of Egypt.
I felt a calling to these ancient sites in hopes to understand something from our distant past. This is linked to my lifelong interests in Meteorology, Solar dynamics, and Physics.
Most all of my surf paintings contain the sun and a wave, which is energy.
My newer paintings in mathematics and geometry celebrate a deeper understanding of the connection between the seen and the unseen.
The unseen is space which is full of energy and the seen which is the formations of matter caught within it.
These ancient sites and the people who built them had a deeper understanding of the flow of energy and our place within it.
I wanted to meet some of the experts who have dedicated their lives to their research. I wanted to see and touch the sites so I could visualize how and why they built such unbelievable structures all over our planet.
I would have to write a book in order to tell you all the things I have seen and learned through these travels. It’s an overwhelming amount of information.
My hope is to inspire you to have your own curiosity and adventures. I want to inspire others to think much bigger and realize everything is much more interconnected than we can imagine.
The Information Age has unleashed almost all the pieces of the puzzle for anyone to access. I believe we have hit a tipping point where modern technology and the ancient past will explode into a whole new understanding of who we are and what we are capable of.
I am firmly convinced that the last gate-keepers of information will fall to the pressure of an ever expanding awakening of the people. The whole history of the world will change overnight.
Here is a slideshow of photos from all 3 sites: SLIDESHOW. In future posts I’ll go deeper into some of the things I discovered.
I also want to share a list of resources that you might want to look into, if you’re interested in ancient wisdom and how it ties into changes that are happening today.
I do not profess that any one person has all the right answers, but I do think they are asking the right questions and I commend them on their dedication and curiosity to discover truth.
All living things contain within it the seed of great potential. From the moment of conception, it already has everything it needs to reach that potential through the growing process.
Sacred Spiral Nautilus was painted using mixed media on a 60” x 48” canvas.
(ORDER A PRINT REPRODUCTION OF SACRED SPIRAL HERE)
This painting was commissioned by Shane, a fellow Resonance Science Delegate. We met while on a Resonance Delegate cruise in 2016. On that trip, we explored the Pyramid of the Sun in Bosnia, the largest pyramid in the world. Shane is one of the most brilliant scientists I’ve ever met. He and I would sit in on the lectures and then stay up all night contemplating the concepts we just learned.
Shane wanted a sacred geometry piece for his new home. His windows overlook the water in Vancouver, Canada, and he wanted his painting to represent a nautilus shell and geometry that expresses the energy of living things.
Below is my description of the painting, the meaning, and the process:
The Sacred Spiral Nautilus painting was inspired by spin. This beautiful shape perfectly demonstrates how everything is growing from the field of energy that we cannot see.
Elements in the painting have been applied in multiple overlays of transparent and pearlescent paints. My process is done with the intention of allowing the viewer to see through each layer, providing a 3D effect as the light catches it. As you move around the painting, it changes, allowing for multiple viewing experiences.
The painting contains an underpainting of more than one hundred layers of paint, meticulously added over a period of six months. These layers express the flow of water, which is the key component to all living things.
I chose to paint two nautilus shapes in both directions creating the toroidal shape of cyclones and galaxies.
This shape is seen in many plants, air currents, and water. The shape itself is called the fibonacci spiral.
Its mathematical ratio is an articulation of the process: 1 and 1 make 2, 1 and 2 make 3, 2 and 3 make 5, and so on.
The background of the painting is the Flower of Life pattern in overlapping circles.
I imagine the flower of life background as the field of energy that we cannot see. It scales ever smaller and larger.
It is everything from Galaxies to atoms. It seems to be a self organizing system or process that is constantly building everything we see. And it is beautiful.
The geometry in this painting is built upon the Fruit of Life, one of the building blocks of the Flower of Life Pattern. The center of these circles, when connected in straight lines, creates Metatron’s Cube.
This symbol, Metatron’s Cube, is called many things; The Star of David, Sign of Solomon, and the Merkaba.
To me, this shape is an articulation of ever-expanding and contracting energy fields that create the patterns we see in nature and all matter.
Metatron’s Cube shape contains all of the Platonic solids. One of the most difficult to create is the three dimensional Dodecahedron.
To create this, you create a circle from one of the mid points of the triangles to the center, and continue along those midpoints until you have gone all the way around creating six circles.
By connecting these points to all others you will reveal the three dimensional dodecahedron.
The multiple layers of the painting encode interlocking concepts that have been passed down from Ancient times. Once you are aware, you begin to see them everywhere. They are beautiful to us because it is the order of the Universe.
The water dripping throughout the painting represents the fluidity of energy in which all of this happens.
My intention is that this painting will reveal a deeper understanding of what is happening in nature, all around us.
Life is good – Drew
Drew Brophy, Artist
Brophy Art Gallery and Studio
San Clemente, CA Ancient Wisdom-Modern Art
This is a sacred geometry painting that was commissioned by employees and friends of Doug Francis, the CEO of Weedmaps, for his fortieth birthday.
It was very moving for me to create this artwork for him, as it is evident that he is deeply loved by the people who work for him. While painting it, I couldn’t help but wonder, what kind of person do you have to be that would inspire this level of devotion from your team.
When I get a commission for a sacred geometry piece, it’s really important that I understand what the collector wants. In this case, they wanted a specific teal green color, sacred geometry and a very subtle leaf incorporated into it.
It was important to me to get it as close to what they wanted as I possibly could. It can be difficult to follow specifications exactly, with this type of commission, because sometimes the painting will do what it wants.
I love how this painting turned out. It took a few months from beginning to end, and when it was finished, I was incredibly happy with it.
Below is my description of the painting, the meaning and the process:
Like all plants, the cannabis leaf is a beautiful representation of the intelligence of the Universe.
The seed of the cannabis plant, before it is even put into the dirt, holds within it a blueprint of its magnificent potential.
Water provides the seed with a trigger and the building blocks that enables the seed to grow. The seed grows leaves so that it can collect the light from the sun.
The geometry of life is already there, and the water and the light conspire to allow it to fulfill its greatest potential.
This painting was designed to demonstrate the geometry of the leaf and to celebrate the beauty of how purely intelligent it is.
The measurements of the leaves very closely follow the Golden Number 1.618 and the Fibonacci Sequence. The leaves expand as if reaching for the light.
It makes you wonder; how does it know what to do? When Shamans say “the plants talk to us,” they are describing a vibrational message they pick up from the plants that will assist in healing. It’s possible that the information being read is encoded in the shape and the fragrance of the leaf.
This is a glorious thing that nature provides, giving us medicine and nutrients to enable us to also fulfill our own potential.
GEOMETRY AND THE PROCESS OF PAINTING SWEET LEAF:
Sweet Leaf is painted on a canvas sized 48” x 60”, using a proprietary mixed media process that I have developed.
The artwork contains an underpainting of more than one hundred layers of paint, meticulously added over a period of months.
I then laid down the flower of life pattern that served as a map representing the field in which everything is contained.
The next step was to add the geometry with the simplest formula, which is radiating circles of 1.618, the Golden Ratio of Phi.
The Golden Ratio is found in the design and beauty of nature, everywhere.
Each circle is 1.618 larger than the circle it surrounds. What I found, happily, was that the cannabis leaf lays nearly perfect on the proportions of the Golden Number with each blade of the leaf matching the circles.
Then I took the arcs of those circles and made intersecting points, finding that it was the basic blue print for the leaf itself, creating a beautiful geometry.
Next, I painted in a ghost image of the actual leaf that floats within the geometry.
All together it demonstrates the perfection of nature. It’s a beautiful pattern, which is the fundamental building block of life as well as the building block of design.
We have to wonder, why does this look appealing to us? The geometry, the leaf, the plant? Our minds find it beautiful because of these ratios and design elements that are taken from nature.
We recognize it, sub-consciously, as divine.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN RATIO AND THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE:
In nature, all living things contain the 1.618 Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence.
The Golden Ratio is an average of the growth rate of all living things. The Fibonacci Sequence is a ratio describing the same effect.
Everything is spiraling out of nothing. It’s as though light is growing. It is taking the light and the water and constructing something out of space, and builds at that rate, in balance.
For example, in your hand, each one of your bones is 1.618 smaller or larger than the others. If you fold your fingers, you’ll see that they curl in a spiral, much like the Fibonacci Sequence.
Everything in nature is perfectly proportioned. In art, when you use these formulas, it is more beautiful to us because we subconsciously recognize the proportion that we know to be in all of nature.
Nature is attempting to grow as efficiently as possible and just so happens that nature has figured it out.
We are connected to all life forms and the Universe is just one big potential that we all are striving to access.
We are a part of a connected Universe.
Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this painting story.
Thanks- Life is good – Drew
PS: Here’s a Youtube Video that I made explaining the process and the painting.
But the big news is this: My favorite paint pen company, Posca, and I have teamed up and they are finally getting Posca paint pens distributed in the USA.
Posca paint pens have been my medium of choice since the late 1980’s, especially for painting surfboards, and I also use them on canvas and most everything else. They enable me to work fast, they blend easily and the colors are bright and bold.
For more than a decade, I’ve wanted to make Poscas easier to get in the USA. Now its finally happening, and I’m stoked that I’ll be doing selected Posca painting demos around the country at different art stores and events. This has helped me get back to my roots and demonstrate my beginnings painting surfboards, which is so much fun.
(Look for Posca to arrive to your local art store, and if they don’t have them, ask for them.)
This August 18 and 19 is the RIP CURL GROM SEARCH at Jenette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina.
I will be there with the Posca crew, guiding people to paint their own surfboards using Poscas.
If you’re local, come see me on the beach at the Pier – I’ll be do what I’m always doing: painting.
If you have any questions for me, leave a comment. I read every one and would be stoked to hear from you!
CASE STUDY: POWERADE Surf Open – Live event and Painted Surfboard Twitter Campaign
CLIENT: Stutze Marketing, Mexico City, Mexico
WHEN: July 2017
MISSION/SCOPE OF WORK: Generate excitement at live event in Acapulco during the Powerade Surf Open event. Encourage use of #Haypower on Twitter during the event. Paint a Powerade branded surfboard for a giveaway campaign on Twitter. Give away and sign posters donning Powerade branding to spectators.
During the surf open event, Drew Brophy painted live as spectators watched. People were encouraged to take photos with the surfboard and post on Twitter, using #Haypower hash tag.
The artwork was designed by Drew to incorporate the surf spot of the contest with iconic images of the region. Powerade’s logo was strategically added to the surfboard design so that it would be visible in all fan photos.
Drew Brophy designed the give-away posters with one of his most popular images, Sunrise, and the Powerade logo was placed on the poster for branding effect.
RESULTS: The live surfboard painting and poster giveaway was the most exciting feature of the event out of the water!
#Haypower was the number one hash tag on twitter during the days of the contest.
Many fans and spectators engaged in the contest; a happy winner was able to take the painted surfboard home. Hundreds of posters were given away. Powerade gave many people a memorable weekend. Mission Accomplished!
It’s tough to spend most of my life working to be known as a surf artist and then to make a complete change in style and subject matter.
It’s like starting all over again. But I’m not afraid of change.
Some of you have followed my work for decades. Most of you love the ocean and the idea of living a carefree lifestyle, and that’s what pulled you into my work.
I’ve paintedsurf inspired art for decades and now have transitioned into mynew style which incorporates energy, physics and mathematics.
But if you break down the surf art and the sacred geometry art, it’s actually not very different.
Both depict the awesome energy of nature and the essence of what it means to live a life well lived. They just show it in different ways.
Many of you are embracing the explorations I’m making but some look at my newer works with confusion.
Regardless of which camp you fall into, I appreciate you sticking by me on this journey. If I can lead you into some thought provoking ideas, even if you don’t resonate with them, I’ve done my job as an artist.
Below is an article I wrote for Awakenings Magazine this month. It explains why ancient symbols are a great fascination and why more and more people are diving into their meaning. I hope you enjoy it.
I would love to hear your take on these ideas – please leave a comment on this blog post with your thoughts – I read every comment and appreciate the feedback.
Life is good – Drew
Ancient Wisdom-Modern Art: Thought, Symbols and Concepts by Artist Drew Brophy
Article printed in Awakenings Magazine Feb/March 2017 Issue
There are timeless symbols that we are all familiar with, such as the cross, the Star of David, the vesica pisces and yin and yang. We see these symbols all the time, yet many don’t know their true meaning.
Many of these symbols originate from a time when people had a deep understanding of the way the Universe works, an understanding that we lost a long time ago.
The symbols that ancient artists created were describing ideas that they understood and wanted us to remember. But, it seems that over time people lost the true meanings and for the past few thousand years we have been rediscovering the truth.
Archimedes, Pythagoras, Plato, Da Vinci, Newton, Tesla, all were great thinkers who have led us back to discovering our true potential. I feel as an artist I am at the crossroads where art, math, and science meet.
We tend to think that everyone sees the world as we do, but most are missing the magnificence of what’s happening around us.
I love nature and surfing and this is where my journey began. I could always sense the subtle energy happening around me, capturing the natural patterns that make up our world.
A surfer becomes part of the rhythm of the sea, riding waves of energy created by storms that traveled from far across the globe. It is astounding that humans can navigate this massive amount of energy creating an experience that can only be described as pure joy.
Surfing led me to studying meteorology and the science of what makes these magical waves that I love to ride. I wanted to know more about what influences the weather and began studying solar dynamics and planetary physics, and that’s when I had an AHA moment that changed my view of everything.
The concepts I learned describe forces that we mostly cannot see but that affects matter that we can see every day. You can call these forces prana, ether, firmament, space, or energy. The Universe is obviously working in a very organized system.
That led me to studying theoretical physics and as I explored the ideas my artistic mind began to imagine the very difficult concepts being discussed. It led me to symbols, geometry, and mathematics. These are languages that we use to describe our world and how it works, and they are beautiful.
An Artist’s job is to expose these beautiful ideas and articulate them into a medium which others can understand.
My paintings are an attempt to understand the information that has been passed down for us.
It is strangely familiar to me. I’ve become more curious; what can we learn about ancient symbols, geometry, and mathematics, through art?
Maybe we will remember something mankind once knew and has long forgotten.
I feel we are ready and it is happening.
I’ve created a series of paintings that are inspired by sacred geometry and ancient symbols, view them here.
Sacred geometry is woven through all-that-is. It is the invisible architecture of creation. It raises our vibration and touches a deep chord in our soul’s memory.
This ancient language describes a definite order of physics; how everything works. When we understand how it all works, we have the tools we need to become extraordinary.
Greater understanding allows us to tap into the power of, and to be in harmony with, the Universe.
Drew Brophy has created a series of paintings to visually prompt a rediscovery of this ancient language.
Join us on this journey at Awakenings on March 18 for a casual discussion of these ideas and an exhibit of the artwork that is inspired by them.
All paintings on exhibit will be available for purchase that evening.
WHAT: Exploring Sacred Geometry & Ancient Symbols – an Art Exhibit and Discussion with Drew Brophy
WHERE: Awakenings Conference Center, 25260 La Paz Road, Suite D, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 949-457-0797
WHEN: Saturday, March 18, 2017 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
WHAT TO EXPECT: An art exhibit of Drew Brophy’s work inspired by sacred geometry and ancient symbols and a casual discussion about the where these symbols originated and what we can learn from them. All paintings are available to purchase and take home that evening.
QUESTIONS: Text or call Drew Brophy Studios at 949-678-8133 or Call Awakenings at 949-457-0797