For the fourth year, Derek Redwine and Dennis Friel are turning a blank canvas into a live ICAST tradition – this time in support of veterans through the Knot Lucky Foundation.
Every year at ICAST, it begins with ideas passed back and forth between two artists.
For four years, marine artists Derek Redwine and Dennis Friel have worked together to create a live painting inside the Star brite booth. What started as a way to bring some energy and creativity to the show floor has become a tradition – and a reason for people to stop, watch, ask questions, and return throughout the week.
Each painting has its own story. Each one has also supported a different conservation or community project connected to Project SeaSafe’s mission. Last year, Derek and Dennis painted a blue marlin with brushes made from trash collected from Florida beaches. It was strange, messy, fun, and exactly the kind of thing that gets people talking about what is in our water.
This year, the subject is a Great White Shark, and the story reaches beyond the ocean.
The painting will benefit the Knot Lucky Foundation, founded by retired 1st Ranger Battalion Sergeant Jimmy Armel. After six combat deployments and a career-ending traumatic brain injury, Jimmy found renewed purpose on the water. Knot Lucky now creates opportunities for active-duty service members and veterans to reconnect through fishing, outdoor experiences, and purpose-driven shark-tagging missions.
Dennis has already sat down with Jimmy for a Project SeaSafe podcast conversation about that journey. The painting carries their conversation forward – from the podcast studio to a canvas in the middle of ICAST.
Long before the show opens, Derek and Dennis talk through the subject, composition, and story together. They sketch, critique, adjust, and push the idea until it feels right. Derek develops the working drawing, and Dennis uses virtual reality technology to scale and transfer the composition to the large canvas. It is a partnership from the first idea to the final brushstroke.
Then Jimmy adds the part no one else can.
Before the artists begin painting, Jimmy will handwrite the names of Great White Sharks he has tagged in honor of fallen service members. As the painting develops, those names will disappear beneath the layers of color, but they will always remain part of the artwork.
Over the course of ICAST, Derek and Dennis will work side by side as the shark slowly comes to life. Visitors will see the process up close – the early lines, the first layers of paint, the changes that happen along the way, and the final reveal.
When the painting is complete, proceeds from the auction will benefit the Knot Lucky Foundation. The funds will support Knot Lucky’s work getting veterans and active-duty service members back on the water for fishing, connection, camaraderie, and Great White Shark research and tagging experiences that honor fallen service members.
This is the first year the annual ICAST painting will directly support a veterans organization. It is a new chapter for the tradition, but it fits the reason the artists started doing this in the first place: use art to gather people around a story that matters.
“It is a partnership from the first idea to the final brushstroke.”
I am always excited for ICAST, and this year is no different. Having the opportunity to sit down with some of our largest customers and showcase our new products in person—in a realistic merchandising environment—adds an element that is hard to replicate.
On the heels of our company becoming part of the PFX Group earlier this year, we are introducing some incredible new products that utilize technologies from across the PFX family. This gives us capabilities we simply did not have before.
For example, our new Signature Series line of compounds, waxes, polishes, and ceramic finishes is designed to produce professional-level results for both professional detailers and hardcore DIY customers. It also brings us into an area of the marine market that we had only lightly touched in the past.
If you are attending ICAST, visit Starbrite, Star Tron, and Project SeaSafe at Booth #2220. Meet Jimmy, Derek, and Dennis. Watch the painting evolve throughout the show. Hear the stories beneath the paint. And when bidding opens, help carry the story forward by placing a bid.
Sometimes conservation begins with a mangrove, a clam, or a cleaner shoreline. Sometimes restoration begins when someone finds a new reason to get back on the water.
And sometimes, it all begins with a blank canvas.
SEE THE PAINTING COME TO LIFE
Visit Star brite, Star Tron, and Project SeaSafe at ICAST Booth #2220.
Meet Jimmy Armel, Derek Redwine, and Dennis Friel, follow the painting throughout the show, and bid on the finished artwork. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Knot Lucky Foundation and its work helping veterans reconnect with purpose on the water.