Artist Rob Appo brings aboriginal designs to surfboards

Self taught Indigineous artist Rob Appo from Tweed Heads, recently showed his fantasic hand-painted boards at the ‘Art of Surfing’ exhibition at Noosa Regional Library. Having had a chat with him, it was clear he had something special to share.

“I started painting about 10 years ago as a hobby and turned into professional artist, I started painting boards as a favour for a friend and ended up really liking the results,” says Rob.
Working alongside his cousins, Dean, Scotty and John Rotumah, Rob paint boards with unique designs - cousin Scotty painted a board for Rabbit Bartholomew, used during his World Title win and which is now owned by Daryl Barnett at Ocean and Earth in Coolangatta.
“Boards take between 2 to 3 weeks to paint, straight onto the foam blank.”
“I use an acrylic paint that needs to be watered down so the dots are not too thick.”
Robs says that thanks to the porous nature of the foam, it’s no easy medium to paint on, but he reckons he’s figured out a technique that really works well.
“All the boards are hand painted so they take some time to do.”
The demand for the boards which start at around $1700 is high, as all of the designs are unique and, of course, people are always after something original that nobody else has.
Clients have included people from all walks of life - surfers, tourists and even one for the didgeridoo-rocking band Max Judo.
“As far as I know all of my boards are hanging on peoples walls at home or office, which really makes them a cool piece of art, but it would be cool to have one of the Aussie pros surfing on one on the world tour,” Rob says.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Rob’s artwork, or want to hook up a board, drop him a line on:

www.rappo@live.com