Biography: Garfield Gar Webb Jr.

By Bo Monroe

Garfield Webb Jr. was born in Wabash, Indiana in 1952 and moved with his family to Fort Lauderdale Beach in sunny South Florida in 1956. His father, Garfield Webb Sr., was an uneducated coal miner from West Virginia and later a World War II P.O.W. and highly decorated soldier. After the war, he became a successful contractor and built homes for a living. His mother, Mildred Travis, who was also from West Virginia, dropped out of school in the 9^th grade to go to work in New Jersey for the war effort with two other Travis sisters. Shortly after the war, the two met at church and shortly after that they got married. His mother would go on to become a successful business woman and real estate investor, buying and selling homes, and owning her own pre-schools, lawn service, and owner of a walk in medical clinic. His older brother by four years, Jerry Webb, would become a highly successful business man and earned his Master’s degree in Respiratory Therapy from Harvard University.

Devoting most of his life to tennis, Gar Webb is a thirty five time singles tennis champion and has taught thousands of people the sport as a tennis professional for over thirty years. He became a surfer in the mid sixties and by the age of twelve was a surfing star. He has surfed around the world and is an avid surfer. He says he will continue to surf, play tennis, and create art until the day he dies. He say’s he’d like to help people somehow through his art and life experiences. Gar worked in hospitals for six years as a respiratory therapist and spent time in Haiti helping people and saving lives. He considered pursuing a career in medicine as a heart surgeon but realized he loved tennis more and stopped practicing medicine to become a tennis pro. As an artist he says that he’s never considered associating money with his paintings. Having painted less than twenty paintings in his lifetime he says that when he did a painting he feels like he’s doing it for a noble cause and the acme of human accomplishment.

With the idea that he would personally collect and preserve his paintings for future generations to appreciate and when he got old, over fifty, he would share his collection or donate it to a museum. Gar will turn sixty in February 2012 and he’s decided to share his paintings with the world and fulfill his childhood dreams. Mr. Webb is a listed artist in Who’s Who In America 2010 - 65^th Edition and Artprice.com in France. In 1999 he opened up the Gar Webb Art Gallery and Surferamics studio in downtown Cocoa Beach, Florida. Surferamics are wave surfer sculptures which are made with a secret mix of plastics and resins. He sells them to surf shops, at art shows, and surfing contests as trophies. Gar Webb is currently creating The Jelly Beans Foundation from his Jelly Beans painting. He hopes to make money so he can travel the world teaching tennis, surfing, and art classes to poor kids and in hospitals. Gar has never been married and has no children. Gar Webb is working on his book titled Heart and Art of a Champion. Gar is seeking to sell his paintings or donate them to a museum.