Contempo at KAB: A life-long love of the waves – Adrian Turner
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Josh Blanket - 05/11/2022
This November, our Terrigal art gallery is welcoming the return of one of our longest running and most enjoyed art exhibitions – Contempo at KAB. This exhibition is expertly curated to highlight fresh visual arts talent over a month long period. Each week throughout the month a new up-and-coming contemporary artist is exhibited at KAB Gallery Terrigal and online at KABGallery.com. Art collectors will have the opportunity to view and purchase emerging talent right from our flagship collectable art gallery space at Terrigal or virtually online.
The first week of Contempo at KAB welcomes Central Coast impressionist artist, Adrian Turner.
Adrian Turner’s life-long love of the ocean and surfing has brought him immense joy in his life. It has also delivered him a very exciting career, as he worked his way through the competitive world of surfboard painting over the last 30 years to become the worldwide lead artist for several manufacturing giants. Over the years Adrian’s designs have adorned the surfboards of the sport’s greatest athletes such as Kelly Slater and Andy Irons. By request he went on to paint more traditional fine artworks to decorate the homes of his surfboard clients like Kelly Slater, and others such as Mick Fanning who had heard the buzz and admired his surfboard work.
Having always painted traditional fine artwork as a side-hobby to his professional life as a surfboard painter, recently Adrian has been looking for “what’s next”. His immense skill as an artist, love of traditional painting techniques and experience in painting seascapes for the those who know the sea best, have all culminated in his decision to concentrate full-time on his professional fine art painting practice. Working from his studio on the NSW Central Coast, Adrian paints beautifully detailed yet impressionistic seascapes, beachscapes and other landscapes.
A self-taught artist, Adrian can be found most nights standing at his easel painting inside his home studio. He works almost exclusively with oil paint, preferring the way he can work the oils to provide movement and texture to best capture his subject. He technique is to work fast and loose, again aiding to recreate the ocean’s movement which he knows so well. With such a deep and life-long affection for the ocean it is perhaps obvious that his favourite colour is phthalo blue, however being a true artist at heart you’ll only ever find him wearing black!
Despite the name he has built for himself within the surfboard painting world, Adrian is still getting used to more widespread love and acclaim for his works.
Sometimes I feel a little shocked to see something I created hanging in someone’s home, but then I get a sense of peace when I see the joy of what that painting means to the person, and it is like we get to share that together.
With an innate understanding of the importance of presentation is his artwork, Adrian ensures all his works are beautifully framed under glass in a simple white frame. This finishes the artwork perfectly, while not distracting from the ocean as the star of the piece. White framing also works well with most collector’s interiors.
We welcome you to view these great artworks at KAB Gallery Terrigal from 1st – 7th November, as the first of our Contempo at KAB artists. As always you can also view the exhibition of works on our website. See them for yourself to experience the impact of Adrian Turner’s impressionist skill, understanding of movement, and use of colour.
Contempo at KAB will be exhibiting a new artist every week throughout this November. Stay tuned for details of our second artist next week.
Josh Blanket
Director & Curator - KAB Gallery
Josh is a keen art collector himself and has a particular interest in contemporary and abstract art. His vision for KAB Gallery is to open the physical gallery space to the online dimension for the 21st century art buyer.
Josh combines his art market experience and knowledge of the contemporary art market to make KAB Gallery available to all audiences via the digital medium.
