Zen and the Art of Surfboard Painting*

Studio 11 – at 11 Captain’s Lane, Fremantle, near the Round House – is one of Fremantle’s better kept art studio secrets.

11 Captain’s Lane is one of the old heritage-listed, harbour pilot’s houses. These days, WA artist David Giles – the artist behind Studio 11 – provides art classes, studio spaces for resident artists, and an opportunity for many more artists to exhibit their work.

One of the exhibiting artists is Lance Whiteman. His particular form of artistic expression is the up-cycling of old surfboards and the use of them as canvases to capture WA coastal culture using his own graphic art style.

Lance uses high quality acrylic paint pens to create his art works. A final IV-resistant clear coat is then applied to ensure a lasting finish.

Lance’s works have found homes in his native New Zealand and locally here, in the West, but also in California, Hawaii, Oregon, England, and Switzerland. Not hard to work out why!

The view from the verandah at Studio 11 looks north east and Lance says he is always met with the large, blank multi-storied wall of the Fremantle Port Authority Building, which always seems to be begging for the addition of some artistic expression. Recently, Lance sort of gave it what he thought it needed!