Peter Matthews, 39, first took his canvas into the waves after experiencing an "epiphany" during a near-death experience while surfing in Mexico in 2007.

Since then, he has traveled around the world, spending hours on his own in the ocean and creating dozens of works while keeping himself afloat in chest-high water.

The quirky artist has lost many paintings to aggressive waves, and once saw several of his pieces buried by a mud landslide in Cornwall as he tried to store them.

Sometimes spending 10 hours a day in the sea, he uses a piece of paper clipped to a wooden board, as well as charcoal pencils and gel pens hidden in his wetsuit.