OPPOSITE PAGE, “Hanalei Bay” is Sharp’s most popular vintage painting: On a hill overlooking the bay, he has imagined a father and son as they would have looked a hundred years earlier.
RIGHT, “Secret’s Beach” is across the street from his home in Hawaii. Sharp paints his wife, Lark, sitting in the shade of a palm tree.
To fill the canvas with one of his
richly colored seascapes, Sharp paints feely with pastels first, then big brushes and palette knives using bright complementary colors. His use of vibrant paint and bold design is suggestive of Paul Gauguin, who found inspiration in the tropics, too. Originally from Texas, Sharp
relocated to Santa Barbara in 1971, lured by its numerous point breaks, hoping to expand on his early success as an artist. His 1960s influenced fairytale style art graced concert posters of such notable musicians as Melissa Manchester, Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul and Mary), Arlo Guthrie and Andrae Crouch, a Grammy winning gospel singer. “My style was really strong from
1973 to 1983,” reflects Sharp. “It’s still there today, the fantasy and organic nature. That was my heyday when my art was really flying here in California.”
From 1977 to 1981, Sharp creat-
ed what are now two historic Santa Barbara Fiesta posters. His “Spirit of Fiesta In The Flower Cart” was signed by President Ronald Reagan. “He was living at his ranch in
Santa Barbara, and he wanted to do something for the people of Santa Barbara,” recalls Sharp. “He signed it, ‘To the people of Santa Barbara. Best wishes, Ronald Reagan.’” In 1987, Sharp packed up his easels and canvases
and moved to Hawaii, spending the better part of 20 years on Kauai and the Big Island. His art had lost its luster in California in the late 1980s, and Sharp need- ed some inspiration. While shining shoes at a golf course, playing the ukulele at the Tahiti Nui Lounge,
and airbrushing for Billy Hamilton Surfboards, Sharp further developed his painting style with a newer, more brilliant color palette. “I needed to restart my career. My art had run its
course,” he says. “One day the colors just came to me: rich, bright colors. As a surfer and an artist, Hawaii has been an inspiration for my art.” When he returned to Santa Barbara, his designs
really took off. Sharp became a Carpinteria resident in 1998, purchasing a home a couple of blocks down
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