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Ran Ortner
Not since the photographic work of Alex Maclean have I been so excited about a landscape artist. Ran Ortner's seascapes are simply magnifique. Painted in excruciating detail and delivered at such scale, you can't help but feel engulfed by their beauty.
Ran Ortner was born in 1959 in San Francisco and lived along the areas rugged coast just north of Half Moon Bay – the home of Mavericks (one of the world’s biggest and most dangerous surfable waves). At the age of 5, the Ortner's set off from the Half Moon Bay airstrip in their 1947 rag-wing Cessna to move to Alaska. In Alaska the Ortner's built a log cabin, had no running water, a wood fire for heat and a grass airstrip for a driveway. To escape the brutal winters, Ran and his family would take their single engine plane on 3-4 month adventures from Alaska to South America.
The adventure of Ran's unconventional childhood was in large part because of a deranged father. Ran found his escape racing motorcycles. The abandon reverie he found in racing opened a door. As he says "On my motorcycle I felt to be dancing with the gods." When injures ended his racing he turned to the sea. Moving back to California at 18 he began big wave surfing. Surfing the cost of California and Mexico he considered his next move. Filled with a wonder at the dynamic conditions of life, Ran realized his need to make art. Ran has been living and working in New York City since 1990.
