The
latest addition to Zihua's ever growing art community opened December
1st, Z-Town Gallery, located on the corner of Juan A. Alvarez and
Agustin Ramirez.
The
new Z-Town gallery is the long awaited home to local surf and
landscape oil painter Peter Schworer and other local and international
artists. Until now, Schworer's work could only be seen as works
in progress out on our area's beaches and surf spots with only
occasional showings in area restaurants.
Having
just returned from a round the world surfing/painting tour of
Cuba, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii --chronicled in "Surfer's
Journal" out on news stands sometime next year-- Schworer got
straight to work opening his new Zihuatanejo gallery. The decision
to finally open a gallery, says Schworer, after 4 years of selling
on the sand wasn't just to sell more paintings -- no matter which
far flung beach locale or rocky cliff top where he sits up his
easel, he finds eager buyers. But to let the other "...99% of
the people that come here that don't even know I exist have a
chance to see my work and because it's a great opportunity to
showcase other talented local artists".
Schworer
has been living in Zihua and selling his dramatic landscape and
surf oil paintings of Zihuatanejo Bay and other surrounding beaches
for four years. The amazing thing about Peter's work isn't that
he captures the waves and landscapes he loves, so well, but that
he is completely self taught with no formal training.
A life long surfer of prestige and 20 year visitor to this area
for the surfing, Schworer has only been painting for about 6 years.
The story of what turned Peter the Surfer into Peter the Painter
is a fascinating one indeed and one I'm sure you can get out of
him in gory detail for the mere asking. I'll spare you the gruesome
details but it all started back in 1994 with a horrific near fatal
surfing accident on some deserted beach up the coast. The end
result being 7 days in a hospital here and another month in a
hospital in California. After six months in a wheel chair, "with
nothing on TV but O.J. Simpson", Peter decided to take up painting
and at some point decided walking and surfing again would be a
good idea too. Ask any surfer out there trying to catch a wave
if Peter still surfs and they'll tell you they're happier when
he leaves the water to paint. And for the multitudes of proud
owners of his oil paintings around the world, they're happy when
he leaves the water too.
Now that Schworer has a gallery to set up his easel in, he'll
be land locked on Juan Alvarez most evenings and occasionally
mornings too, depending on the waves of course! Stop by and see
the work of a man who lives to surf and paint, inspired only...
"To capture a moment in time, the serenity, the harmony of life..."
and oh yeah, by "...the fear of having to do something else for
a living too."
In addition to Schworer, Z-Town gallery hosts several other local
and international artists. David Solomon, voted World's Best Watercolorist
by the World Watercolor Society. Gabriel Vitta Filleaudeau, oil
painter originally from Argentina, residing in Zihuatanejo for
the past 9 years. Chadwick Kirk, former architect and engineer,
who has exhibited his watercolor painting in Tacoma, Puyallup,
Seattle, Bellevue and Bainbridge Island, WA and Ketchikan and
Anchorage, AK and Aspen, CO. And several more artists to be announced.
Z-Town gallery is now open and located at 13 Juan A. Alvarez -the
road parallel to Playa Principal, the orange building on the corner
of Alvarez and Agustin Ramirez, just up the road from Coconuts
and JJ's.
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