Garry Birdsall, was born in Sydney where surfing is a national pastime. He spent all of his leisure time as a youth on the beaches of Sydney.
He was one of the pioneers of Malibu surfboard riding and has participated in numerous Australian and world surfing events. He was the first artist in Australia to do airbrushed paintings on surfboards. Today Garry paints in his Sydney studio. He uses a variety of mixed media but favours the technique used in Noosa Festival which is a combination of opaque and translucent watercolours.
Noosa Heads National Park After a Cyclone 1964
From the Surfing in the 1960s Series by Garry Birdsall
In the 1960’s most of Queensland was still a wild frontier of bush, beaches and dirt roads. With the coming of mass car ownership most people could now access the areas beyond their towns and many headed for Noosa’s surf beaches.
In 1964 a series of tropical cyclones flooded these ancient lands as wind, rain and storm surges beat down on the coastline, wreaking havoc and massive destruction. As the cyclones diminished everyone breathed sighs of relief that the worst was over. But the cyclones aftermath offered a silver lining to surfers, epic storm swells pumping in to Noosa Heads National Park.
This amazing surfing utopia is captured in my painting. I was lucky enough to have surfed Noosa National Park back then. But this particular painting was inspired by my mate, Mal Sutherland’s classic photograph taken at Noosa National Park after a cyclone back in 1964. Contact photographer: msut@bigpond.com
Email : Garry Birdsall
Website: www.surfart.com.au
