"Our Solar System" Resin on Fiberglass Painting

"Our Solar System"

55 1/2" X 32"

Resin on Fiberglass Paintings

     When I started building surfboards back in 1966, the surfboard industry had only one way of applying color and that was by brushing colored resin on the sanded fiberglass surface of the surfboard. To do this, one had to know how to have control over the hardening of the resin. After the catalyst (hardener) is added to the colored resin, there is only a few minutes time before the liquid resin hardens totally. If the right amount of catalyst is not added and mixed properly, the colored resin will not harden. After the design was painted on the surfboard, the board was then glossed with clear resin and polished. The surfboard industry no longer paints with colored resin. Surfboards are now sprayed with latex paint on the finished shaped foam blank before it is fiberglassed. Painting with colored resin is now practically a lost art.

     Seen here are a few fiberglass paintings that I have done since the first one in 1972. I start with my own designed "fiberglass canvas". It has beveled edges, rounded corners, and is 1 1/2" thick. To paint on them, I apply the same techniques I learned while painting surfboards in colored resin. I use both opaque and transparent tint pigments. My paintings have a look that is unique and all their own. I hope you like my resin on fiberglass paintings.

David (Bud) Gardner

Bgardsurfb@aol.com