Meet Veerle Helsen – a travel and architecture journalist who’s passionate about surf, photography, food and design.
After taking a sabbatical in 2018, traveling solo in a camper along the sunny coasts of Spain and Portugal, she decided to quit her job and dive deep into the ocean of freelance writing. And today Veerle is inviting us on ananything but ordinaryjourney through her new book ‘Surf & Art’.
More info:Veerle Helsen
After her bestselling travel guide ‘Surf & Stay’, Veerle Helsen is launching a new book called ‘Surf & Art’
Image credits:Veerle Helsen
Image credits:Jonty Storey
Veerle Helsen already knows the taste of success due to her previous bestseller book called ‘Surf & Stay’, which came out in summer 2018. “Take your passion and make it happen. It’s what I did in 2018 and I’ve never been happier. It’s like the pieces of my ridiculous complicated puzzle finally found each other. And of course there were tears. But salt adds flavor,” Veerle shared her thoughts after a year on Instagram.
“I used to have a fixed position as a journalist for a prestigious news magazine in Belgium. When I was 35 I took a surf sabbatical in a camper. I traveled along European surf coasts for 9 months and wrote my first book about that trip, ‘Surf & Stay’. It’s a surf and travel guide collecting surf spots but also places to eat or sleep, things to visit. And architectural gems, since I’m a design journalist. When the book came out, I quit my job and ever since I’ve been freelancing. I write about travel, surf and architecture/design for several magazines,” – explained in the interview forBored PandaVeerle.
The book invited readers to discover hidden salty gems of 7 regions: Cornwall, West Flanders, South Brittany, La Côte Basque, Cantabria, Tenerife and Alentejo.
Her new book ‘Surf & Art’ started from an illustration that Veerle bought from Portuguese artist Lizzy back in 2018
The idea for ‘Surf & Art’ is connected to Portugal: “When I was making my first book I discoveredLizzy’s artworkin Portugal. I bought something small from her and this was my first piece of surf art. It’s a woman graciously longboarding in a pink sea. I think this was 7 years ago and I still have it in my house. Ever since I have been collecting from surf artists. After two editions of ‘Surf & Stay’ I thought it was time to make a book about another passion of mine. I don’t think anyone has ever done it before. Most books about ‘surf art’ focus on photography,” shared Helsen.
“This book is a tribute to surf artists worldwide. To how they capture theessence of surfingand translate it to canvas, paper or digital spaces,” she added.
Asked about the most special moment in the entire process of the book, Veerle smiled and said: “Honestly, making a book is really hard work. It takes a loooooooooot of time. So my favorite moment is when it arrived :)”
The new book ‘Surf & Art’ connected 23 artists from all around the world
Image credits:Eric Abel
Image credits:Taisiia Kordiukova
Image credits:Nina Brooke
Watercolor artist Johny Vieira from Santa Cruz, Portugal, is also participating in the book. It was an unexpected yet trulybeautiful surprisefor him: “I still hadn’t had the chance to meet Veerle Helsen in person, but one day I woke up with an email from her telling the idea of a book about surf and art, gathering different contemporary artists around the world. She wanted to feature my work in it, I stayed super excited with the idea and that’s how we connected.”
Johny had a chance to showcase 4 of his artworks. “I chose the ones that I was resonating the most with in that moment, but for different reasons,” the artist explained toBored Panda.
“The 1st one is called ‘Surfbless’ (a woman on a longboard with an abstract wave). I like this one technically, the contrast of the definition in the figure with the abstract of the wave.The 2nd one is ‘Daydream’ (a pair of empty waves breaking in the middle of the jungle). Daydream is a place that doesn’t exist, it’s one of many attempts to capture a familiar surf scene that frequently visits my dreams. I often find myself in a place where there’s no human trace, free from noise and visual clutter. It’s a peaceful feeling, a silence that goes through the veins and makes me feel good.
The 3rd one is ‘Jared’ (a surfer making a hangfive in black and white with orange sun). This one I like due to the movement that I was able to express: surf is all about movement, nothing is totally quiet, and it’s a challenge I like to have in my painting process. Also, my favorite color pallet is just sepia, so I wanted to show it to the world. And the last work is called ‘Freedom’ (a small surfer in a big blue background). For me freedom is about the feeling of freedom (No way?! Ahah) that surf brings us while we ride a wave, simple and beautiful as it is,”shared Johny.
“The ocean affects a lot of people’s life in different beautiful ways, so I admire that so many people paint, draw, write, photograph to express their feelings and visions about the ocean,” added Johny.
From watercolor to digital illustrations or classic paintings – this new book celebrates surf art
Image credits:@drivemetotheocean
Veerle Helsen is not the only one seeing the connection between art and surf. When I moved to live in Costa da Caparica, Portugal, I had a wonderful chance to discover a local brand calledFLOW.ART.INKand their famous ‘Escamoso’ fish with a surfboard or the sun riding the wave.
A foreign couple, Alex and Cezar, who are the ones behind the concept, find constant inspiration in the ocean and surfing since they live very close to the beach.
“I decided to try to do more design with no colors, and wanted to create a character with the local vibe. This is how I created ‘Escamoso’.For me, he represented the lifestyle of Caparica. He became an artistic fusion between fishermen and the local surfers. Important to add that he is not a sardine, but a carapau fish,” explained Cezar.
Asked about what the art means to him, he told Bored Panda that it’s the most important part of his life and how he expresses himself: “Art moves me and makes me feel alive.”
Veerle Helsen couldn’t include all the artists she wanted, therefore hopes that she will be able to do so with the 2nd book edition
Image credits:@flow.art.ink
As Veerle Helsen beautifully describes in her book’s intro, discovering the artists “will bring you drops ofwisdom in waves“. Together with the author, I hope this book will take you to the ocean where you can experience that blissful feeling of the vast blue mixed with warmth of golden sunbeams.
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