bicycles_byron_bay
Tigerfish Gallery in Bell St, Torquay, is showing new paintings by Norval Watson over Easter.
The show continues for about six weeks. All welcome!

Right: “Bicycles, Byron Bay”, oil on canvas, 121 x 152 cm. Price: $12,000 AUD.

Avalon: After the Neutron Bomb

Avalon: After the Neutron Bomb


I painted this work for an Easter exhibition in Torquay one year.
There wasn’t quite enough time to finish the painting, so I left it as it was, with no surfers, no beach-goers, no grommets in the car-park, in fact no human beings at all.
This gives the painting an eery, ghostly quality, Read the rest of this entry »

Love and Rockets

Love and Rockets

“Love and Rockets”, watercolor, A3 size, 1995.
Cape Byron is seen though a nice tube at Cosy Corner, Tallow Beach, Byron Bay. All the surfers seem to be riding Rocket Research surfboards, made by… yours truly.
Painted this at 69 Massinger St.

In association with Tigerfish Gallery, we sold this painting this week.
It will be delivered by ferry across the very same waterway seen in the painting.
Congratulations S & W on your purchase, a strong addition to your existing collection of Norvals. :)
Enjoy!

Windshark

Windshark

This pastel dates from about 1984, before I started painting.
I was sailing a lot at Phillip Island and out at Cactus Beach, both notoriously sharky locations. I never got attacked by a shark (touch wood) but I certainly saw a few!
The sailboard was shaped by Tom Tyrrell, of Island Surfboards.
This artwork is in the collection of a well-known TV personality who keeps it (or used to) in his bedroom. Dunno what his wife makes of that!

The Seaway

The Seaway

Fortune favors the brave – and fantastic surf is just a short paddle away, across a river full full of sharks…

“Big Wednesday”, oil on canvas, two panels, @ 48″ x 120″, 1993.
This painting shows a cyclone swell at Manly in 1993. The swell came up from dead flat at dawn to 12-15′ by lunchtime. Surfable spots on the northern beaches were Fairy Bower, the Queenscliff bommie, North Narra, North Av and South Palmy. This was before tow-surfing was invented.
The best part of this painting is the loving depiction of my trusty FZ750 at bottom left ;)
“Big Wednesday” is currently on semi-permanent exhibition at Torquay’s iconic Surfworld Museum and could be yours for a cool $50,000.
Contact Grant Forbes at Tigerfish in Torquay for details.

Big Wednesday

Big Wednesday

The Beacon

The Beacon

“The Beacon” is at 13th Beach, Victoria.
This beach is named after the 13th hole on the Barwon Heads golf course, which is just behind the beach.
“The Beacon” is known for hollow, pitching peaks and has been a popular surfing spot for decades.

“The Beacon”, oil on canvas, 24 x 30″, 2007.

This painting may be viewed at Tigerfish Gallery, Torquay.

Corsair/Quarantine

Corsair/Quarantine

“Corsair/Quarantine” depicts The Rip, the notorious entrance to Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia.

In the foreground waves peel across a shallow sandbar while ships pass between Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale. In the background can be seen Barwon Heads, Mount Duneed, and the You Yangs.

Surfers from the western side of the Heads know the sandbar break as “Corsair”, after Corsair Rock, at the tip of Point Nepean. Peninsula surfers from the east side call this break “Quarantine” after the former quarantine station at Portsea.

The surf is fickle, dangerous, and normally very crowded.

Oil on oil paper, 1993, 65 x 84 cm.

This painting is currently on view at Tigerfish Gallery, Bell St, Torquay.