Insturmental News

The Surfboard Guitar’ by Tom Byrne & Roger Courtney, 2006

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 18 October, 2006 : - -  The Apollo Gallery is proud to unveil a unique collaboration between two artists of different disciplines, the world’s first surfboard shaped guitar. The guitar itself was built by the Dublin born custom guitar maker Roger Courtney who drew inspiration for the body from modern shortboards and for the headstock from bodyboards.

Tom Byrne then took the guitar and used it as a canvas for one of his unique wave paintings, referencing both Ireland’s oceanic myths and the modern sport of surfing in Ireland. The result is an original work of art which looks as good as it sounds.


Technical Specifications:
Kent Armstrong Gibson P90 Humbucker retrofit
Steinberger gearless tuners
Tonepros locking Tune-o-matic Bridge and Tailpiece
Custom wiring with a double pot
Vintage Bone Nut
D’Addario 9 guage strings
Gaucho Strap
Price: € 4,500.00


The Painting:
Tom Byrne’s paintings, which he has termed, Over Nine Waves’, draw on his fascination with Ireland’s coastal waters, his appreciation of the work of the great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and his reading of ancient Irish myths to create a series of 9 wave paintings reflecting his fascination with what authors Jay Moriarity and Chris Gallagher once described as, “the moving canvas”.

The concept of ‘nine waves’ is referred to many times in both Irish historical and mythical sources. According to the preface to Colmán’s hymn in the Liber Hymnorum, “A plague cannot reach beyond nine waves”. In a fragment of old Irish law entitled the “Muirbretha”, a principle regarding ocean salvage is established by which; what is retrieved beyond nine waves from the shore belongs to the finder.

Most significantly, the Milesians agree to a druidic judgement to travel over nine waves to reach Ireland in order to claim the country as their own and to usurp the Tuatha De Dannan.


Tom Byrne:
Tom Byrne is emerging in the Irish Art Scene as one of the hottest new painters around. Classically trained but with a ‘punk’ mentality to his muse, Byrne portrays a world that is as fantastic as it is rooted in the life of modern Ireland.

He was featured, along with Dorothy Cross, in a major RTE documentary on the Irish art world entitled, “True Lives: Art for Sale”, broadcast in January 2006.According to art historian Nuala Mellet, “His works are full of feeling and when one views them it is best to approach them with the same free, unbound attitude that he takes towards his work.”


Apollo Gallery:
The Apollo Gallery specialises in the work of Irish Artists or Artists living in Ireland imbued with the Irish imagination. Its function is to bring Irish work (Paintings, Sculpture & Prints) to an International Audience.

Many of the Artists it represents have achieved International reputations. Apollo Gallery patrons include Sylvester Stallone, Goldman Sachs, Ted Turner (CNN), Robert De Niro, Microsoft, Sky Television, ING Barings Bank, Barclays Bank, RTE, Michael Mills (REM) and the William Morris Agency (Beverly Hills)

Click here to see more of the guitar

www.apollogallery.ie

New! Get the latest news with Surfersvillage News-Alerts

  Updated & Revised European Surforecasts
  More European surfing news available here

Julian Charlton

Culture - Surfersvillage