"Wading For the Sun" - Surreal Surfing Painting by Artist Jay Alders

The warm summer sun, waves peeling, the mesmerizing light reverberating through the ever-changing forms of the ocean and the sight of a beautiful girl wading towards the sea. For many of us, these things bring us passion, tranquility, maybe even envy. This painting has been an ongoing project for some time now and I wanted to share a little bit about how it unfolded.

As an artist, I am confronted with imagery and analytic thought every waking second. It’s my job to dismiss, interpret or work through those ideas and to determine how to best materialize them, if at all.

It the late summer of 2012 I was working on some new merch designs. We were a month away from Surf Expo and a version of this painting made the cut. We stocked up on some new tote bags and tanks for girls. With every intention of releasing them late summer my inner voice kicked in and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the concept as just a piece of graphic line art. It had more potential. I liked the surreal and dynamic energy in the sky and the overly exaggerated curves and compositional lines and thought this would make a great painting. I was not to be released until the painting was done.

I started work on what I thought would be a quick painting yet as it often goes, things happen. We ended up moving, I changed studio spaces, planning for the trade show overwhelmed us, I had to evict a tenant who’d be free-loading in my former home in New Jersey, freelance projects came across my desk that were too good to pass up, several trips occured, Hurricane Sandy devastated my home town area of the Jersey shore and charitable work became my obsession, my cat sadly passed away too etc. Life through a bunch of curve balls and my painting sat on my easel starting at me reminding me daily that it needed attention.

I made time when I could between the chaos and it became my sanctuary of escape. This painting served me, it taught me, it created itself as I floated through ego-less zone of creativity. As with most of my work, there is some hidden imagery and symbolism that revealed itself, it is my therapy. I didn’t base this off of any photos which is always challenging to attempt to think as light thinks, bending realities to form a new believable paradigm.

I am excited to share this now. I give to you now, “Wading for the Sun”.

Prints and merch are now available here.