The Wave – Belhaven Surf Centre

This was a commission completed during the first lock down, almost a year ago to the day. Due to COVID and restrictions at the Belhaven Surf Centre (BSC) I have been unable to share this with you until now.

Commissioned by the BSC directors directors, 'The Wave' was created to commemorate the names of the individuals and organisations whose financial contributions made the centre a reality. The directors felt a text art piece, incorporating the list of names that offered financial support, was the ideal way to remember their contributions.

The Belhaven Surf Centre is an exciting new building based in Dunbar, designed to serve the needs of those who enjoy surf and adventure activities together with the community. It will become home for a number of organisations improving surf safety, access to all for surf and coastal water sports, sports performance and environmental education (https://www.belhavensurfcentre.org/).

With this work there were many challenges, one was to create a wave out of text. A concern I had was how to create water and movement from text whilst honouring the legibility of the individuals and organisations named. The 2nd concern was perspective. Should I create a wave looking from the beach to the sea (front on), or perhaps in the water looking North towards the Bass Rock, or South toward the iconic Bridge to Nowhere with the surf centre located behind it? I chose the latter, deciding it would be more fitting to try to provide the perspective from a surfer in the water, paddling out past a barrelling wave with the beach, bridge and surf centre in the distance.

I can honestly say if you’d asked me 10 years ago I would never have imagined trying to make this. To see the finished work on the wall and the scale is really cool. I hope those that are mentioned don’t have to spend too long trying to find their name in the work as the scale makes it slightly easier than some of my other work.

Pictures can never recreate the real thing so hopefully those who get to visit the surf centre can enjoy the magnitude of the piece in person very soon.

Thank you again to the directors for allowing me to create this work.

Cheers

T

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