by Lily Plume

surf place smoothie artist — Ceri Bathgate

at her home away from home

If there’s one word that sums up lady slider and surf illustrator Ceri Bathgate (@tropicoolstudio), it’s got to be serendipity. This girl seems to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, letting little serendipitous moments carry her through the flow of life. Born in Scotland and raised in Canada, she travelled from Australia to Hawaii to Nicaragua and San Diego before settling down in Tofino for while, where she fell in love with longboarding culture. This is also where she kick-started her career as a freelance illustrator, drawing inspiration from her travels between cold seas and palm trees.

For the past couple of months she has found her home and artistic inspiration in Imsouane, sharing her groovy lady slider vibes with us through her cruisey prints and a funky mural to brighten up our smoothie bar! We caught up with Ceri before she moved onto her next adventure to talk about travelling, starting out as a freelance creative and finding her style in longboarding culture.

So first thing’s first - Ceri, how did you end up in Imsouane?

“It’s always been a place that I was really curious about, and hearing that it was not only the longest wave in Africa but the longest right-hander specifically for longboarding, well I’m a regular so it sounded like the dream… Anyway, I was in Portugal in August for Gliding Barnacles, then from there I went to France and bumped into some friends I had from Sri Lanka and they were like ‘Hey we’re going to Imsouane on October 6th!’ and I was like ‘Cool - can I join?!’ And, well, here I am! So yeah, it’s always been a place that I’ve kind of had on my radar, and I thought I may as well come check it out whilst I was over in this part of the world.”

How did you first get into illustration?

“Whilst I was travelling I started doodling a bit along the way, and then I started drawing a lot of surf related art. I always tried to integrate a pun of some kind, like one of the first pieces I did I called ‘The Frothin Coffin’ and it was this skeleton in a coffin with a shotgun, and the coffin had a single fin. Anyway, I’d been travelling in Nicaragua for 5 months when I went into a surf shop called Orik. They then reached out to me on Instagram when I was back in Tofino, asking me to do some design work for them. This was a very serendipitous moment, because the design work I did for them got me more work elsewhere, and that then opened up the realm of illustration for me. I was super in love with longboarding at the time and wanted to create a life where I could longboard and freelance illustrate, whilst travelling the world.”

So this is how your Tropicool Studio was born?

“It started off with my slogan - ‘drifting between cold seas and palm trees’ - because at the time I was always living between Tofino and the tropics, so that’s how Tropicool was born. My logo is a yin and yang with a wave and a sun, the balance of opposites, or ‘feng-shwave’ as I like to call it. Anyway, all of this I felt was a perfect way of defining me and my art, because my art sometimes changes with my travels, so when I was in Canada I was drawing a lot more pine trees and camper vans, and then in the tropics I’m always drawing palm trees, I love them.”

How has your artistic style changed since you first started out?

“Over the past few years I’ve been emerging myself deeper into this longboarding culture and that’s how I’ve really found my style. First I went through this edgy ‘skeleton style’ phase after living in Mexico, all the skulls there inspired a lot of my art. Now, as I’ve become passionate about longboarding almost every design involves a lady slider, a girl on a single fin.”

What have been the challenges of your first year working as a freelance illustrator?

“The reason I really pushed myself to get into it in the past year was because I ran out of money when I was travelling in Portugal, and it was either go home to cold Canada or continue travelling. I decided to continue travelling and moved on a whim to Sri Lanka with no money and I realised the best way to find work is by doing work for free. So I wasn’t necessarily earning money, but it was the only way to build up a portfolio. I had to live really broke for a long time until I could get to the point where I could start charging people and also start generating clients organically - because the more work I have the more work I get. There was a long period of broke ‘rice and curry’ lifestyle - but I mean, Sri Lanka isn’t a bad place to be broke because after all, it’s super cheap! So in the end I chose to be broke in Sri Lanka over being cold and broke in Canada. The huge challenge was being content with being broke, and hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel where I would actually start making money from it. So I just had to persevere through it, because I knew the only way I could make money was by doing work for free to build a portfolio in order to start charging.”

So when did you get your first paid gig, and how did that happen?

“I got offered a salary based job for a company called Lifestyle over Luxury, known on Instagram as LL Supply. They’re an environmental surf and outdoor brand from Canada, and they were already high on my list of inspiration, I loved what they were doing and I’d already reached out to them on Instagram asking if they wanted to work together. They read my message, but didn’t respond... So I messaged them again last year some time, then in January they reached out to me asking to do some work for them. Straight away he told me he really needed the designs done that day, so I ended up having to do 2 designs in one day, which is not easy! Anyway, I guess he was pretty impressed with my quick turn-around and my work, because he then offered me a salary job as their clothing designer. This was kind of like my ‘woohoo!’ moment, getting my first regular pay cheque, meaning I could continue this travelling lifestyle knowing that at least I’ve got that work every month. It’s also nice to be able to have one company that I work for and grow with a little bit.

So Instagram is a pretty important platform for you to find work?

“Totally - everything with that job with LL Supply was through Instagram. I very rarely email places, people just find my profile and reach out. Instagram is an integral part of my business, as is word of mouth. The reason why I’ve also concentrated my market to longboarding is because it’s a pretty small market, and then specifically focusing on female longboarding is a pretty popular movement in itself, and people are always looking for designs in this style so I like how focused I’ve made my designs. This means I’m also working with people I want to work with - you know, I’m not working with big corporate companies who I don’t resonate with at all, I’m working exactly in the business that I want to be involved in.”

What are your plans for the next year?

“I don’t really know where it ends in terms of my design, but I want to try and be involved in as many longboarding festivals as possible. Gliding Barnacles changed my life, it was the best week ever, so now I’m just thirsty for more of these festivals. It was just so fun being around the most such a niche community of people who I would love. I also want to continue working with other inspiring brands that I love. I mean, the whole goal has been to be able to comfortably travel and illustrate and surf, but I’m kind of doing that now, so that’s cool! So I guess the goal now is to keep doing that and sustain this lifestyle for as long as possible.”

FAST AND CURIOUS ROUND!

Your vibe in 3 words?

Happy, loose and cruisey!

Single fin or twin fin?

SINGLE!

Curry or tagine?

Curry! (Sorry Morocco!)

It’s been a real joy having you around Ceri, we’ll miss your sunny smile and groovy vibes! We hope you come back soon for some more sliders in the Bay.

Interview with surf artist Ceri Bathgate