Bodhi Hope, 27, Northern California-based Painter And draftsman, grew up immersed in the elements and intense beauty that commands his attention as a focal point of inspiration for his creative work.
Swiping through piles of paper with crayons and pencils as a young boy was how it all began for him. From the start, he would compile colorful drawings and advanced compositions in his main lesson book in Waldorf school. With a deep interest in stories and their ability to evoke his imagination, he filled his books with tales of Pharaoh’s, Knights, Dragons, Horses, and other creatures from his head. Drawing was always a refuge for him during long boring school days, it was always something he could escape to, to create adventure out of the mundane. Copying comics, coming up with his own, and drawing all sorts of hero’s and villains kept his restless mind and body going when he sat behind a desk.
Moving to over 12 different places in the Bay Area by the time he was in his young teens meant a lot of exposure to different people and terrain of Northern California, which later he would hold a great appreciation for all that it instilled in him. His uncle taught him to surf in Bolinas when he was 11, something he would fall in love with more and more and take in much inspiration from being immersed in the ocean so often, which would end up being a very common theme in his work as a plain air landscape painter and draftsman.
Much of his current works theme is capturing continuous songs the ocean swells sing again and again, the colors that each element brings forth as they weave together a unified atmosphere of subtle rainbows. The cold afternoons on the edge of coastal peninsulas in winter when the grass has been met by storms, or foggy mornings in late summer, and of course the faces and figures that find themselves in the eye of the artist as they walk along a windy beach.
