S02E09
→ Lucas Beaufort

Lucas isn’t a classically trained painter. He tried to go down the route of ultra-detailed photorealism, but soon realized it wasn’t for him. He discovered his style illustrating skate magazine covers which allowed him to perfect his craft and develop his iconic ‘Gus Gus’ character. This week’s PHCL is all about creating something from nothing.

Lucas is more than just an artist and painter. He’s a traveler, creative, author and the man responsible for bringing the culture of Skate back into skate shops.

‘I started to paint very late. I was twenty-seven.’

Lucas Beaufort is the definition of a late bloomer. Although he’s incredibly successful now, he only started painting at twenty-seven and came to it by accident after being filled with the overwhelming urge to create. He started off traditional, believing that the mark of a good painter lay in very classic, heavily-detailed pieces. After a few months of trial and error, he realized this wasn’t for him and his iconic jaunty style was born

‘I didn’t know that painting would save my life.’

When Lucas says this in his episode of Pack Heavy, Chase Light, he very quickly follows it up with ‘it sounds silly’, but when you hear the story behind it - it’s anything but. Lucas was haunted by night terrors as a child that followed him into early adulthood. They kept him from sleep and affected his day-to-day life. When he started painting, he drew the monster that had followed him for twenty-seven years and turned it into the character now known as Gus Gus. Gus Gus is found in some form in most of Lucas’ work, and the process of taking the character out of his mind and onto paper stopped Lucas’ night terrors in their tracks and he hasn’t looked back since.

Watch Lucas’ episode of Pack Heavy, Chase Light now.