RP Roberts x Jones Snowboards: Frontier + Frontier Split

RP Roberts is not an unknown name for all Jones lovers.

The British artist has in fact already painted 4 of their boards in the 2017 and 2018 collections. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Jones Snowboards, the brand asked him to create this special piece to commemorate the launch of the Frontier and Frontier Split. 

Formerly named the Explorer, the Frontier is a directional freeride board designed to be the perfect daily driver for the creative all-mountain and backcountry shredder. 

The new graphic features five peaks from around the world that hold special meaning to Jones Snowboards founder Jeremy Jones. He has ridden from the summit of all these at different stages of his career, we are talking about Wilson Peak – Colorado, Corrugated – between USA and Canada,  The Tetons – Wyoming, Shangri-La – Nepal, Bec des Rosses – Switzerland .

Balancing old school painting skills with new school street art skills, the process RP uses to create his board graphics is quite unique. He starts by collecting sunrise and sunset images of the peaks. Then he made a digital mock up of the layout, layering the peaks in various orders to find the best composition that avoided placing important mountain features over the binding insert locations. Once the composition was to his liking, RP picked up the pen, paint brush and spray can. Bright colors and bold textures of mountain landscapes come out of the design. His art captures the essence of the mountains we love so much.

Can you briefly tell us about your background?

I grew up in North Wales and now live in Manchester. I spent most weekends and holidays hiking and walking, so I’ve always been a fan of the outdoors. Art wise, my father was an art teacher but there was also the external influence of seeing the early 90s of graffiti develop at the local skate bowl. The use of colours and style captured my imagination and got me interested in that culture. I studied sculpture in college and then worked for a company involved with delivering graffiti workshops to kids in Europe. For years I made and sold artwork, but more as a hobby. It’s quite a scary prospect being solely dependant on your artwork because you end up not only being an artist, but you also have to manage accounting, sales, pricing, marketing strategy.

Can you tell us how you had the opportunity to work with Jones? And what has been your favourite graphic to produce?

I got a direct message from Xavier from Jones on Instagram saying that Jeremy had seen my work and if would I like to submit a design idea for the Mountain Twin, this developed into creating designs for four models that season. I think my favourite has to be the Mountain Twin from the 16/17 season. It features my painting of the Matterhorn, and is the first graphic I created for Jones, a firm marker in my mind, it was when I first considered the real prospect of making a living from art.

What inspired you to start painting the mountains and what is the process behind it?

A lot of the time I am painting specific commissions, so the inspiration comes from the source photos, but there is also external inspiration as far as colour schemes are concerned from pottery, furniture design, graffiti. It pays to be interested in many artistic sub-cultures, as this gives you a broad view and open mind when it comes to experimenting with technique and colour. I started painting mountains as I was searching for an avenue to take my artwork, and I’d completed a couple of mountain commissions and it just blossomed from there. 

I work a lot creating private commissions and try to involve people in the process. Often they will provide a reference photo, but I also do a lot of online research trying to find a similar view of the peak at different times of the day. Once I start painting, I usually send them a shot with the initial colours blocked in, if they are happy I then go ahead with building up textures, depth and finally details.

You’re also a snowboarder, what’s your relationship with mountains?

I find riding very similar to art, you have the freedom to make the lines you want, where you want, whilst being totally engrossed in the environment and the activity. You’re never thinking about everyday problems when you’re riding. The same happens with painting. I enjoy the opportunity to disconnect, it’s an environment where you really are just back to being a small dot on a huge planet. It’s easy to forget that sometimes.

You’ve collaborated in the past with the environmental charity Protect Our Winters. What’s your opinion about climate change and global warming?

I think humanity is having a dramatic impact on the speed the climate is changing. The work that POW does trying to change the opinion and direction of the senate with regards policy is a great approach when trying to improve the situation. Similarly, I admire the work of Surfers Against Sewage, trying to improve government policy with regards corporate responsibility. It is a great example of how the environmental impact of consumerism should be addressed by the producers as well as the consumers. There seems to be a lot of focus on the consumer to take responsibility, and not so much on the corporate side to revise their production methods and provide sustainable options. Hopefully by changing the way we consume and travel on a corporate scale, we can help slow down or reverse the impact we have had on the environment.