During the late 70s, Colin Unkovich and a friend started a business manufacturing surfboards. During this period the ability to turn customer’s ideas into personalised artworks on their new boards was an important part of the business and set them apart from a lot of the competition. The most efficient and effective method of applying colour to the boards was via an airbrush. He found that he really liked the process to the extent that he would sometimes be working on a customer’s request into the small hours of the morning. Over the next 30 years, as well as utilising airbrushing intensively on the boards, he also painted wall paintings in his spare time.
“I paint because that is what I want to do. I was part of a perfectly good business; surviving very well, but I wasn’t getting any time to paint. It just felt like there was a hole in me that needed to be filled. My art does that. I am an outdoors person at heart. I grew up on the land and I think that my upbringing cemented that aspect in me; as a result I tend to look to the natural world for my muse. In New Zealand we have such diversity, not only of the physical landscape but equally importantly of light and colour. I sometimes feel that I am a bit spoiled for choice. Mostly I work on commissioned pieces. I think that I enjoy the challenge of interpreting what it is that someone desires. I always really appreciate it when somebody comes to me out of all of the artists out there. It is so nice to know that what you do is valued and that people have confidence in your abilities. I know that some artists find it too constraining to work with someone else’s expectations, but I find it very rewarding. Most of my commissions are of a meaningful nature to my clients and I have a file of thank you notes from clients for whom I have done work. I keep them all because it is nice to know that I have been able to interpret what they wanted in a meaningful way and that with any luck it has provided them with something to enjoy for years to come. As a counter-balance to working on commissions, I like to paint a few surrealist pieces because there is no right or wrong, there are no rules; it is good to let your imagination go.”
See more of Colins work HERE
