Life Is Change, Art Is Constant

From Blue Mountain Beach to Rosemary Beach, artist Justin Gaffrey weaves a life of art between these thriving Gulf Coast communities.

by Nellie DeBruyn
photography by Courtland Richards and Michael Granberry

The art of Justin Gaffrey exploded upon the sleepy yet refined landscape of Walton County in 2001, his aesthetic pervading the scenic region of County Highway 30A and beyond. From canvases on the walls of his popular gallery on Blue Gulf Drive, to festival posters and T-shirts, to restaurants and other businesses. It seemed to spring mysteriously from hot summer days on the famous white sand beaches. With energy, force, and color, it became part of the very landscape it so often depicts.

Today, Gaffrey and his children, Aria, 10, and Justin Jr., 15, live, work, and play in ever-evolving proportions at Gaffrey Art Gallery. It’s impossible to miss the kaleidoscopic building on a red dirt road just north of 30A in Blue Mountain Beach. The landscape is energized by a tidal surge of shattered dinner plates, lost teacups, and worn conch shells submerged in concrete. Stained slabs of driftwood adorn high-rise birdhouses. American flags painted on corrugated steel are propped against the front wall. Welcome signs on remnants of tin roofing declare, “We strongly encourage buying original artwork” and “In art we trust.”

The studio, separated by a half wall from the gallery, looks as though a paint ball game has recently been waged at close quarters, which might explain why Gaffrey is wearing camouflage. He chats as he tends a 7- x 7-inch square of canvas. Hours earlier, he had rolled up a magazine to create a de facto pastry bag and used it to squeeze some acrylic paint into an imitation cluster of blueberries. He bastes the canvas with a cerulean glaze, balancing it to distribute the dripping patterns over the edges. Satisfied, he takes it into an adjacent room, where it joins a dozen other paintings in various stages of completion.

This assembly line approach to painting suits Gaffrey, who professes a short attention span. Working with a palette knife, he lays down thick portions of acrylic. With his deft application, cadmium yellow erupts into a sunset that would make Crayola envious. While it dries, he moves on to another piece and cycles through the process. This rhythm seems fitting for someone who spent twelve years presiding over some of the busiest kitchens at the best restaurants on Highway 30A. Painting, like cooking, has been a self-taught venture. “Everything I’ve done in life, I just teach myself,” he says.

Gaffrey admits there are challenges to working and living as an artist. He began painting right about the time of the September 11 attacks — not the ideal moment for a new life direction, arguably. Today, in an economic climate full of challenges, he continues his prolific output. “Even in this economy, art continues. Sales haven’t dropped; they’re the same. I just look forward and throw myself full force into art. Into everything.”

On this particular Tuesday, Gaffrey is on a tear. “I have about fifteen paintings to do by Thursday,” he explains. He eagerly anticipates taking a break to relax and then revisiting the themes of his earlier paintings. He takes me on a chronological tour of his work and points out the struggle he faced in his early attempts at realism. His solution led him to folk art narratives, in which the human form is replaced by skeletal characters. An encounter with a van Gogh painting in a museum produced a eureka moment for him. He took up the palette knife and soon began painting in his signature style. Now, after years of practice and concomitant confidence, he is ready to explore new themes. “I want more meaning in it. Instead of just decorative. I want to tell stories again.”

But it wasn’t always art, just art. Gaffrey cashed in on his decade of cooking and contacts when he opened up his own restaurant, Café Sublime. But the restaurant venture was short-lived. Tired of the logistics of owning a business, he sold Café Sublime in late 1999, not wanting to deal with both managing employees and working 80 hours a week.

Without a plan, he took a year off. He revived a former skill and built primitive armoires and eventually tried his hand at painting his handiwork. Deeming it a success, he next decided to try painting on canvas. His first painting sold within a week. “So I did it again and again and basically I haven’t stopped.”

The obsession with art has been nonstop at Gaffrey Art in Blue Mountain Beach, where the line between life and art has often been indistinguishable for the artist and his fans. Customers come into his yard seven days a week, and the kids are often called on to play a supporting role. Both Aria and Justin Jr. started painting when they were old enough to hold paintbrushes. Justin Jr. paints in a folk art style. He paints all the American flags. Aria paints alongside her dad, with a palette knife.

But just as life presents changes in multitudes, so does art. Since late 2008, Gaffrey has been increasingly expanding his scope to include World Six Studio Gallery in Rosemary Beach. His art lines the walls of the living gallery in North Barrett Square, just off 30A. Although a scant 13 miles separate the two studio galleries, the distance marks a major shift in both locale and inspiration for Gaffrey. “I’ll be doing all my painting at World Six this summer. I’ve been so attached to Blue Mountain and I’m curious to see how other people respond.”

After years of painting in the relaxed, comfortable setting of Blue Mountain Beach, he is excited to stretch his legs and see what a new environment will offer his art. It is one of many major transitions in his life, and one that longtime visitors to his Blue Mountain Beach gallery are surely curious to follow with expectation. “Blue Mountain is my foundation, where I learned to paint, so this is kind of like leaving home,” he points out. “But I’m ready for new challenges and to expand.”

That autonomy and fierce intent only underscore Gaffrey’s talents, just as the thick, vibrant application of acrylic underscores his signature style. No one could mistake a Justin Gaffrey painting of silent pines in silhouette rimming the shores of Western Lake with that of any other artist. For generations of visitors to the Gulf Coast of Florida, for whom the name Justin Gaffrey may remain unknown, welcome to the beach.

For more information about Justin Gaffrey, see www.justingaffrey.com

Nellie DeBruyn lives in both Grayton Beach, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota, where she raised her two sons. She studied architecture at the University of Minnesota and has built several houses in Grayton Beach.  While in Florida, she is a contributing writer to the community papers for the towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach.  She is also a frequent contributor to Coastal Homes and Lifestyles magazine.