The Artist's Blog

5/3/2020 6:06:15 AM

The Surfer's Journal - Caroline Zimmermann: Brought to Life

Johnny J / Comment on this
Topics: Painting Water | Seascape Paintings | Surf Art | surfing

Supertubes

In 1994 Caroline's work was "Brought to Life" for Surfer's Journal magazine.

Documenting her surf trip to South Africa, Caroline showed the step-by-step process of creating her famous painting "Supertubes", which graced the magazine's cover that year.

Surfer's Journal Volume 4 No 3, 1994, with "Supertubes" on the cover.

"Supertubes" 20x30 Oil on Canvas

The Supertubes surf break is located at Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Jeffreys Bay is one of the five most famous surfing destinations in the world and hosts the annual World Surf League surfing event at Super Tubes during July. Spectators and professional surfers from all over the world flock to this event. In 2015, Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark two minutes into the J-Bay Open finals in Jeffreys Bay. Fanning punched the shark and tried to wedge his board between the shark and his body, and he emerged from the attack physically unharmed.

A very long, fast, tubing right hand point break breaks along the west side of the bay. The break is regarded as one of the best right hand point breaks in the entire world, in both consistency and quality, in season. It has been divided up into several sections, including, from the top of the point, Kitchen Windows, Magna tubes, Boneyards, Supertubes, Impossibles, Tubes, the Point, and Albatross. "Supertubes", which itself breaks for about 300m or more, is regarded as the best part of the wave.

Another nearby right hand point wave at St. Francis Bay was first idolised and promoted in the surf movie The Endless Summer in the 1960s (although both Jeffreys Bay and St. Francis Bay were probably surfed much earlier). Surfers who travelled to the area soon stumbled upon the nearby Jeffreys Bay surf break, which was found to be not only a faster, more powerful, and hollower wave, but also much more consistent. *

Painting "Supertubes" step-by-step.

As part of the article Caroline described her painting process step-by-step, a portion of which is excerpted here.

“The first stage of my painting process requires that I eliminate all the white from the canvas with an underpainting of some kind. The white canvas used to fight me, and in this way it’s gone from the beginning. For this I use a transparent alizarin crimson or magenta wash which is a mixture of turpentine and paint, and then proceed to sketch the image with a darker tone. In most cases, this stage needs to dry for a few hours while I work on something else."

"Usually I start with skies. the more abstract parts of my paintings. Oddly enough, the skies “ground” the paintings and set the tone.”

Painting "Supertubes"

The complete article is available in the archived edition of Surfer's Journal Vol4 No 3, and can be purchased from the Surfer's Journal website. The individual article "Caroline Zimmermann - Brought to Life" is also available for purchase.

Caroline Zimmermann, surfing images.

For Some Artists, Changes Come in Waves.

Caroline continues to surf and, though her style may have changed a little, she also continues to paint dramatic seascapes and wave paintings, including her recent creation "The Secret Life of Waves"...