First Santa of 2010 (In August!)

In case there is any confusion, it isn't Christmas! (A lot of people who saw this today commented exactly like this: "Christmas, already?")

The Riverbank in Truro has some amazing deals with their Xmas parties this year. Manager Phil Willey knows I get busy at close to the festive season and had the good sense to reach for the 'Cosmic Phone' he had installed in his office.

"Cosmic! We need your help!" He screamed.

I hung up the phone, shot down the Cosmic Pole and immediately flew out of the Cosmic Cave, in the Cosmicmobile, on course for Truro.

Within four minutes I had designed, painted and finished the fattest Surfing Santa in all the land.

And the world was saved.

(Story may be slightly embellished for dramatic effect. ...might have something to do with the super hero theme of the SAS ball, creeping up just a week from today!)

Quiksilver British Surf Championships at Fistral Beach

I am a special guest artist at this years British Surf Championships at Fistral Beach this weekend:

"Over the Bank Holiday weekend, Quiksilver are proud to present the Quiksilver British Surf Championships at Fistral Beach, Newquay, England. The annual event will be held over the Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday 28th to Sunday 29th August 2010) where the best surfers across Britain, including Russell Winter (former European champion), Alan Stokes (U.K. Tour Champion), Toby Donachie (former British champion) and current British junior champ Luke Dillon, will be competing to win titles in the British Men’s Open. Gibson Guitar has once again generously donated a Gibson Les Paul Studio guitar as the champion’s trophy.

This year, Quiksilver’s presence, down on Fistral Beach, will be joined by Gibson Guitar, Roxy, DC and Monster Energy Drinks. DC & Monster Energy will keep the crowds entertained between heats with demos on the Monster Energy skate ramp. Demoing for the weekend will be DC, Monster Energy, and Quiksilver Pro Skaters, including Pete King, Sam Bosworth, Dan McDermott, Sam Pulley and John Bell.



To complete the Gibson experience, the Gibson Guitar Tour Bus (one of only four in the world) will be parked exclusively on Fistral Beach over the Bank Holiday weekend and will provide a media hub, hospitality and a place to relax for Gibson's special guest artists, bands and all participating surfers."

www.quiksilver.co.uk
www.gibson.com

Update: 'Protect Our Waves' Quiksilver/ Surfers against sewage Limited Edition Tee By Cosmic

I am very pleased to be involved with this project. They are selling like very hot and very tasty hot cakes, apparently.

Remember it is a Limited Edition, the proceeds go to a very worthwhile cause and they're sik tees! So, get them while you can. Below is a list of shops selling the tees and online shop links.

"To celebrate the 20th anniversary of SAS, Quiksilver has joined forces with Surfers Against Sewage to release a limited edition t-shirt to be sold in a select number of surf shops around the UK and Ireland this summer. The limited edition t-shirts have been designed by St Agnes based surfer and artist, Cosmic. He knows the importance of respecting the environment and is actively involved in national and local community art projects. Most recently his work has featured in Carve magazine.

This T-shirt is is 100% organic cotton"






Here are some links and online shops (there are more):

Quiksilver
surfersvillage
Facebook page
andila.co.uk
bg stores
vanityclothing

urbanstore1

..and a list of participating shops:

FULL LIST OF STORES:

Boomerang, Southport: www.boomerangboardwear.com
City Surf, Cardiff: www.citysurfshops.co.uk
Devilwear, Durham: www.devilwear.co.uk
Dive & Ski, Jersey: www.cisurf.com
Magicseaweed: www.magicseaweed.com
Ocean Sports, Brighton: www.boardriders.co.uk
Quiksilver Surf School Newquay: www.quiksilversurfschoolnewquay.com
Quiksilver Store, Barnstaple: www.lesportsurf.com
Quiksilver Store, Bristol: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Cardiff: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Carmarthen: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Covent Garden: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Llenelli: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Newquay: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Regent Street: www.quiksilver.co.uk
Quiksilver Store, Truro: www.quiksilver-truro.co.uk
Surfdome: www.surfdome.com Shore, East Wittering: www.shore.co.uk
The Loop at Retallack Resort, St Columb Major: www.surftheloop.co.uk
Tribe, Dublin (Ireland): www.tribe.ie
Troggs, Northern Ireland: www.troggs.com

Thanks for supporting the cause!

Cosmic

Florists Delivery Machine

I thought there was already a picture and a blurb about this on my blog but can't find it. So here it is...:

Painted for Jane Adele Flowers in Truro a couple of weeks ago. Free reign, I just had to mention the name of the shop ...and paint something relevant.

Poltair Skatepark

The House is a genuinely unique youth centre in St Austell, Cornwall. They are situated next to a skate park with ramps and features specifically designed for street skating. The designers also put in a wall for graffiti and street art and I was invited to paint on it this week by The House and Cornwall Council and make a permanent feature and benefit to the park.

I managed to get a great group of young people who hang out at The House and the skate park to help me prepare the wall for painting (quite hard work) and, as we scraped off paint and sanded the wall and enjoyed visits from the press, we talked about ideas and images to go on it.

The image is a response to the subject of the need for peace and respect. The planet shows that the issue is worldwide. There is a question mark in the eye/moon because there are questions in the picture. Some questions we couldn't answer so we decided to leave a majority of the picture open to interpretation.

They didn't mind the hard work at all, and it was hot on Monday!

On tuesday I got there at 5am to start so I could get a lot done before the park got busy but it was raining and it wasn't very interesting work waiting for the rain to stop! Luckily the Mayor of St Austell, Jill Trewhela, turned up with bacon sandwiches, flasks of tea and hot chocolate and great conversation.

The House opened at 10 and I got the chance to develop the ideas with some Monday's team and meet the DJs and dancers who were doing workshops there that day.

Finally got to start painting the wall at around 12pm and heard more press were on the way so I drew the outlines and gave everyone colours to paint, even the Mayor got involved with the painting and took lots of pictures. By the time the press arrived there was a lot of the image on the wall.

Great teamwork!

drawingonthings workshop: in Roche

Young People Cornwall put on days Called "Youth Fest" during the summer. This one at Roche, yesterday, had live music, DJs, MCs and cakes, burgers and a "Drawing On Things" workshop!

We used spray paint to create graffiti style pieces to hang on the wall. The project, theme, idea, message, content, colours, and 99% of the work came from these young people. I just helped them do it.

Tappy float for Aggie Carnival '10

I gave local pub and bistro The Taphouse (the Tappy) some help with the decor for their float for this Saturday's Carnival in St Agnes.

The theme was 'Hip-Hop' and they had a DJ and some break dancers to perform behind the float. So I did the panels in different graffiti styles to go along with the theme. The dancers good but I was more keen on taking pics of my artwork as I hadn't taken any when I painted it so i've cut a lot of heads off in my shots (...either that or it was something to do with the amount of rattler being consumed!).

The day went really well and this float drew a lot of interest, especially when they stopped to do their party peice outside the pubs by rolling a mat out and having an 80s style breakdance-off.

Carve Magazine Illustration

This month my first illustration for Carve is published!

Carve is a great surf magazine, been going for donkies' years and is a cornerstone of British surfing.

I am very proud and pleased to be illustrating for them.

Your local newsagent should have some copies. If not, but the s*** out of him til he does.

Tony Hawk show

(skateboard star and legend Tony Hawk)

This week I met Tony Hawk! It has been almost a year since I got sponsored by Quiksilver. During this time I have been drawing at shop openings, painted surfboards, skateboards, drawn all over trade show stands with spraypaint, released a limited edition tee, drawn at comps and festivals so obviously I meet pro surfers and skaters at these events.

This week I was invited to Brighton to watch the Tony Hawk and Friends show which Quiksilver had organised on the seafront and I met the man himself, biggest legend of skateboarding who has been at the top since I started skating in 1984-85.

Tony Hawk was really cool to talk to (considering he was to skate in front of thousands ten minutes later) and when I told him the story of St Agnes needing a skatepark he insisted on supporting the cause!

There was a free bar in the vip area and an after party which got pretty loose at a club up the seafront. There was some amazing art, with huge murals in the smoking quad painted mostly in spray paint. and four huge wooden sculpture figures perched high up on a roof.

Kevin Staab is also a proud ambassador of the St Agnes Skatepark!


(skateboard star and legend Kevin Staab)

All the music on the day was good, the DJ at the beach played the most classic anthems of skateboarding culture over the last 1000 years including Black Sabbath, Iggy and the Stooges, Ramones, Black Flag etc, as the two american compares kept everybody hyped up. Then Maximo Park took to the stage, I hadn't seen them live before. Their show was energetic and they went all out to entertain. The DJ at the after party played some unreal dub, hip-hop and electro funk.

The whole day was amazing, Quiksilver had pulled it together and the whole event ran really well. The level of skateboarding ability was insane and it must've been a really inspiring show for any young skaters there.

A drawingonthings workshop sponsored by Cornwall Fire Brigade.

Dracaena Youth Centre, Falmouth. Sunday 11th July 2010

MP Sarah Newton, Cornwall's Chief Fire Officer Des Tidbury, and almost 100 young people from 5yrs upwards took part in covering this wall with graffiti (not all at once) to help share the important message of road safety during a massive fun day at the youth centre in Falmouth last Sunday.

Other activities included an alternative petting zoo (with tarantulas and lizards), a funfair, bbq, football tournament, skate, bmx and scooter comp, and archery.

All the young people that took part on the wall took the theme seriously and all of the slogans are theirs. I wrote a few, but I was being dictated to. Graffiti artist 'SIN' turned up and did a peice with a road safety message too.

The result was very successful and enjoyable day for everybody involved, as well as carrying a very important message.

This painting existed for half an hour before the fire brigade tore it apart!

Dracaena Youth Centre, Falmouth. Sunday 11th July 2010

Ok, this is graffiti style. But I still had permission! ...and lots of fun. I was doing a big drawingonthings graffiti-esque workshop with spray paint and a wall provided by the fire brigade. Before I did that though, the fire fighters were going to demonstrate how to free somebody trapped in a car and wheeled this little Vauxhall Corsa into the baksetball court. I saw my chance, and took it!

I had about ten minutes to paint the car it before they closed off the basketball court. I painted "drive safe!" and a skull, with his hand on a steering wheel painted on the windscreen, a CCTV camera with a tear coming from the lens on the rear of the car and "SAFETY 1" number plates.

Then, as I enjoyed a cup of tea half an hour later, I watched them tear both the painting and car to shreds whilst Robyn from the Dracaena Centre sat, slightly petrified, in the drivers seat.

After all this riveting display of controlled descruction I helped almost 100 kids from 5-17 yrs graffiti a wall with positive messages about road safety! Pics of the wall above.

limited edition quiksilver tees

!!Just had pics ahead of the press release:

These Quiksilver Limited Edition Organic tees by Cosmic ( me :) will be in the shops in the next few weeks and ALL profits from the limited sale go to the Surfers Against Sewage campaign (S.A.S)

This year Surfers Against Sewage campaign are 20 years old!

SAS were formed, and still operate, from the village where I live, work and surf.

In twenty years this environmental pressure group has done a heck of a lot to force the powers that be change the filthy, putrid, sewage ridden UK seas (that used to give us all the shits and worse) into clean waters, much safer for recreational use!

They are available in various colours and flavours. They are a bit sik though, so make sure you're up to it!

More details to follow as I get them!

You can join SAS here... sas.org.uk

qbar update: mezzanine area

Last night, while (most of) you were sleeping, I was painting this...

NEW Daily Pic project 2010-2011

From 06-06-10 I will post a new drawing a day to Cosmic's Daily Pic project page on flickr.

Each day's drawing can take anything upwards from a few minutes to complete and can be on any surface and produced with any media and materials and about any subject, but not for another job.

This will be very difficult with deadlines etc, so it probably won't be every day. But if I possibly can get one on there i will. The aim is to make a whole year without taking a day out so, every time I take a day out the counter starts again at zero days!

SHOP Tonight!! Perranporth

SHOP (it's a music thing!) is probably the most fun you can have with a beer in your hand.

From 9 til very late tonight Seiners in Perranporth, Cornwall kick off their 'Summer Sessions' with an exclusive SHOP gig.

SHOP gigs are very laid back but dangerously cool, and may seriously effect your music tastes.

Cornwall Colouring Books Day Out

I decided that today would be a nice day to take the Cornwall Colouring Book No.1 By Cosmic to meet some new outlets.

I Started in Gwithian and continued to deliver to Marazion, Porthleven, Praa Sands, then onto venues on The Lizard peninsula, St Keverne, Coverack, and back via Kenneck Sands and Helston.

Had a great day meeting loads of new retailers. There are some very cool people working in Cornwall!!

The Cornwall Colouring Book No.1 By Cosmic will now be on sale at all of these locations.

Pipeline Mag Interview

Pipeline magazine interviewed me for their 'Meet A Member' feature the current summer issue out now.

Members of SAS (Surfers Against Sewage) receive this magazine as part of their membership.

SAS is an extremely worthwhile organization and vital for all recreational water users.

Join and find out more here: http://www.sas.org.uk/

Buddhist Booklet Cover

This is the cover I designed for the 6th Annual Cornwall Nichiren Buddhist HQ Course booklet for a course at Taplow Court in Berkshire.

Meet 'Pu Pu'

This is the new intern here at Cosmic Images.

This is 'Pu Pu'. She can't draw, can't type, but very cute. ...and as she's the bosses daughter, she gets away with all sorts!

SHOP returns

On the 3rd of June 2010 SHOP returns to the shores of Cornwall, UK.

When the DJ's from SHOP are ever asked to describe what they do, they just say "It's a music thing." It is clearly not for them to describe.

Don't miss this: The first date, THURS JUNE 3RD at Seiners in Perranporth

I give it *****five stars!!

See press for more details. As far as I am aware it is even free to get in!! ...It doesn't get much better than that!