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[ Suspenseful music plays ] -My name is Sean Diediker and I'm a painter.

♪ I've always designed my paintings based on travel and chance.

I love exploring the human condition as I look to find beauty in true, unscripted reality and then documenting that experience with paint.

♪ [ Animal calls ] ♪ [ Owl hoots ] I love merging the craft of Old World masters with modern-day media to create and share unique windows into humanity.

♪ Join me as I canvas the world to explore the interplay between art and the human condition.

Every episode a place, every episode a painting.

♪ ♪ Sydney, Australia -- a geographical gem that elegantly combines the urban jungle with the actual jungle.

The city that was once a punishment for convicts now attracts seekers of beauty and nature worldwide.

Visitors as well as residents enjoy the benefits of a major metropolitan city, as well as a sacred communion with the outdoors.

♪ ♪ As you get a little mileage under your travel belt, you often find those places that call you back again and again.

For me, one of those places is Sydney.

As I dig back into the archive of my favorite memories, more often than not, they've occurred not far from this very spot.

One of those memories was of a homeless man named Sherlock, aptly named Sherlock the Homeless, and his partner Jules.

I met him back in '05 on the park bench behind me, quietly sitting there in his stained board shorts and torn hat, enjoying watching the sailboats float off into the bay.

We talked about why he loved Sydney so much, and he told me tall tales, like when he attempted to windsurf around the entire continent of Australia.

I remember he was drinking a large Victoria Bitter out of a paper sack.

He offered me a swig, which I now regret refusing.

When I asked him where he lived, and his reply was, "In a cave over near Greycliffe Street," of course I assumed he was just playing with me, but it turns out he did actually live in a cave over near Greycliffe Street, right in the middle of town.

Over the years, as I've stayed in Sydney, Sherlock and Jules became a staple.

I never knew when I was going to run into them, but I always did, followed by long conversations about everything and nothing at all.

But more on Sherlock and Jules a little later.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Perhaps the best introduction to Sydney begins with a ferry ride over to Manly Beach.

♪ Manly was named by Captain Arthur Phillip, for the indigenous people living there, stating that their confidence and manly behavior made him christen it Manly Cove.

Manly quickly became one of Australia's favorite seaside destinations.

The Port Jackson Steamship Company coined the expression, "Manly is 7 miles from Sydney, and 1,000 miles from care."

[ Piano plays "The Entertainer" ] ♪ -There are 10 different beaches within walking distance of Manly Wharf.

So if this one doesn't float your boat, you can try this one or this one or even this one, all of which are nestled between national parks.

-♪ Such a cutie ♪ ♪ Oh, come on, now ♪ -While this may sound like a resort town, it isn't.

The locals are locals and want to keep it that way.

Visitors are welcome, but the monster resort hotels have been kept at bay.

There's Paul and his bonsai trees, Ness and her jewelry... -Oh, hi.

♪ -...Master brewer Chris and his latest beer.

♪ Another interesting thing about living in Manly are the wild cockatoos.

They're free to go wherever they want, but sometimes they'll land on your balcony.

And I've managed to teach these ones, Lucy and Sanchez, how to shake.

Give us a shake.

Nice to see you.

Good to see you this morning.

♪ [ Ting! ]

-I'm Heath.

This is how you speak Australian.

♪ -[ Chuckles ] -And that's how you speak Australian.

♪ -Because nature is only steps away from your front door, Manly residents respond accordingly.

This is the bold and the beautiful Manly swim squad.

They do this every morning.

Whether swimming, fishing, surfing, or sailing, there is a sport here for just about everyone.

♪ ♪ ♪ -One, two, three, four, five, six.

♪ I first saw waves in Bondi when we came to Australia, in '68, from Macedonia.

It took all but 10 minutes to ask my dad, "That's what I want," And it was 3 months later that Dad did get me a surfboard.

I then jumped on a train, and I went to Cronulla Beach in Sydney.

In those days, we didn't have leg ropes, so I had to get a wave without falling off, and that took 6, 8 hours.

That was my introduction, and I have never stopped surfing since.

Pretty much everything I do revolves around it.

I've been shaping surfboards for around about 24 years, and I'm probably somewhere around, I don't know, 3 1/2 thousand boards.

It's an artful type an idea, 'cause you have to interpret a person's like for a surfboard and how they surf and what they want, and if you've done your job right, they'll love it.

We'd rather see people happy, and that's what surfing is.

It's happy.

[ Classical music plays ] ♪ We have an issue, a lot of the times, with people who will always tell you how good they are, and then you make a board to suit, and then you seem them out and you went, "Uh-oh."

Yeah, it always pays to be honest with the shaper.

♪ If you're a beginner, it's no point me giving you a pro surfboard.

I guess it's like a racing car, like an F1, in comparison to your normal Hyundai, so you would know what to do with it.

-You gave me soft rails, right?

-I gave you a bit of both, actually, because I haven't seen you surf.

So your board will actually do the big waves and the small waves.

When you get to a certain stage of a surfboard, measurements are nonexistent.

You have to feel and you have touch and you have to see.

♪ There's so much beauty in the water and the salt air, and it's just so good for you.

It's like religion for most of us.

It keeps you clean.

[ Birds chirping ] ♪ ♪ ♪ -My favorite song is "Sailing" by Christopher Cross.

It's an oldie but a goodie.

I don't know, that song just reminds me of my childhood and bouncing across the desert in my dad's truck.

I've done the smaller boats, but I've never done one of the really big sailboats -- you know, where you need a crew, like the America's Cup boats.

And so I think it'd be really cool to try one of those.

-My name is Peter Murran, but the crew call me Mouse.

I started sailing about 35 years ago, Sean, very different sort of boats to the one we're going out on today, though.

I've won a couple of things over the years.

I think I have about five national titles.

You need to work as a team, even under stress.

So when things are going wrong, people need to keep cool with each other and with the situation to get on top of it, get going again.

In the past, I've flown aircraft.

I was a charter pilot for about 10 years.

It's common in sailing to find pilots, and, indeed, in aviation, to find sailors.

I've sailed in a number of other places around the world, some very beautiful ones.

I guess I'm a little biased.

I'm from Sydney, but I think the harbor is the most beautiful harbor in the world, particularly for sailing.

With its orientation and the way that prevailing winds blow, it's just the perfect place to go, for a yacht, really.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Crew relations are so important for sailing, and sailing well and sailing safely.

Without proper communication, things could go wrong so quickly.

Everyone just kind of comes together like a family almost.

The only time I've actually seen people go overboard is when lifelines are broken, and they're hiking too hard and just fall in.

-I've been sailing since I was 4.

I'm a sailmaker by trade.

I've been making sails for 20-plus years.

In the America's Cup, a mainsail will cost you 85,000 Euros.

It lasts for 50 hours.

Nowadays, the sails will be predominantly carbon fiber.

They used to be predominantly Kevlar.

So, just the exotic cloths and everything we have to use for sails is what brings the cost up.

It's not so much labor to build the sail, it's the material that costs the money.

They're very unique boats because of the design that goes into them.

And they're specifically built for specific locations, at specific times of the year, to do the America's Cup.

So the amount of technology that goes into big, powerful boats, and they're also just a lot of fun to sail.

I just love the freedom of it.

It gives me a release.

It gives me a sense of freedom.

We're taking over in three, two, one.

swap sides.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Hey.

-Hey, Sean!

-Hey.

-How's it going, mate?

-How's it going?

Oh, it's your cave, man.

-[ Chuckles ] [ Dog barks softly ] -[ Speaking indistinctly ] -The famous cave.

-Yeah, yeah.

-At least it's home.

-How did you find it?

-Well, Jules and I were living on the land.

We were living on the street for a while and then... We're camping on the other side, underneath a tree over there, and I looked over, and I said, "Jules, we might go and investigate what's over there."

Bingo.

[ Laughter ] -Found the cave.

-It's a treasure.

-Yeah.

-It's a treasure.

-Because we went looking on the council cleanup about a new bed, and we made a -- had deck chairs, and we put our paintings on the wall.

Sherlock was doing his art.

-We used to hang a painting from there to paint, instead of using an easel.

I like to call it The Cave of the Sacred Root.

-The Cave of the Sacred Root?

-Yeah, well, this... See, this root of this tree goes in there and into the ground, and it's beautiful.

-Could people see you?

I mean, passersby?

-No, no because these branches grew right down... -To the bottom.

-...to the ground and... -So it was all private.

-Yeah.

-Amazing.

-It was.

-So, we could see out, but they couldn't see in.

-So, above you, there's houses.

-Yeah, right above us.

-And they're not cheap houses.

-No, they're luxury.

-Was being homeless a choice?

-I went through a divorce and was forced into bankruptcy in the United States, and I ended up with nothing.

And I end up living in a cave in Malibu for a while.

-Oh, really?

This isn't your first cave?

-It's -- No, this is -- Yeah not my first cave.

-[ Laughs ] -And -- And, um... -You could go if you want.

-And I saw the Twin Towers have come down on the TV at the time and wrote all this stuff down, and eventually, you know, I'd set out to windsurf around Australia to bring awareness to that date and say, "Whatever we do should be to just chill out on the anniversary, you know, of that date, you know?"

I thought, "Just give the world peace, you know?

Give the world a rest for a day."

I got back to Australia.

Attempted to windsurf around Australia.

It didn't work, and then so... -To windsurf around Australia.

-Mm-hmm.

-The whole country?

-Yeah.

-How did that work out?

-[ Laughs ] -That's ambitious.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it was a big idea.

-It didn't go too good.

-[ Chuckles ] -I ended up crashing at what they call Mrs. Macquarie's Chair.

It's a point there opposite the opera house.

-Okay.

-And just as the police launch was coming around the corner to pick me up and say -- 'cause you're not allowed to windsurf in the harbor.

I didn't know that.

-Was that your starting point, was the harbor?

-Yeah, yeah.

-So you didn't make it out of the harbor?

-Never made it out of the harbor.

[ Laughter ] It was a short trip, yeah.

I've got a long way to go.

-I lived in my car for quite a while, and then, the next thing, my car was claimed by the council, and I had nowhere to live, so I walked away with my cloth dress and my shoulder bag and just walked -- began walking -- and... -At that time, Jules and I just had a checker-- like, a tablecloth, eh?

-Yeah, it was like that.

-We threw all our gear into that, tied a knot, and that went on me back, and that was all we had.

It was pretty simple, at that time, to live.

-Did you feel homeless?

-Not when we met.

I suppose I did when I lived alone.

I felt more homeless.

-When I was living on the street to begin with, I didn't lie down, because I never lived on the street before.

I used to sit up, and I'd just fall asleep.

And I felt a presence of a woman there.

An aboriginal woman said that I was invited to this country, so I felt a lot of, you know, acceptance.

-What things have you done to adopt an aboriginal lifestyle?

-For me, it was a matter of a process, or a journey, of opening up and accepting the heart of the matter.

That's what really opened me on this end of the aborigine -- the aboriginal.

And as my heart became more and more open, I saw with a different vision.

And the aborigines, when they came into my life, started to -- they found me and took me on the journey.

They follow the heart.

The spirit of the land guides them, and the creatures, the animals, the rocks, the waterways.

Everything is like one.

-How has, then, living on the street, or living in this cave for that matter, changed your perspective on the things you need?

-Oh, my God.

You need nothing but to have water.

-While we're here, we cooked on the open fire.

-Yeah, we cooked on the open fire.

We swam in the river.

We bathed in the sea, and the shower if we needed to.

-Were you happier in the cave, or were you happier before?

-Happier in the cave.

-Oh, the happiest in the cave, yeah, by far.

-Yeah, happiest in the cave, but I loved living on the streets... -Oh, yeah, it was... -...with Sherlock in that situation, because we danced and we didged and we drummed, and we showered, and we looked after ourselves.

-Yeah.

-I mean, you can do it.

That's the beautiful thing about doing it.

You prove to yourself you can do it.

And with such little -- no cost.

Did it cost us anything?

No.

♪ The freedom to go anywhere at any time, if you let yourself be free here.

♪ ♪ -I'm attracted to, and always learn from, the paths people take to find their own version of happiness, even if it's in unconventional ways.

Now, I'm sad to say that Sherlock died not long after we filmed in the cave.

And for me, Sydney isn't quite the same without him.

But the beauty, sun, waters, and all the things he loved about this place remain.

So, here's to you, buddy, and whatever shores the wind and tides have carried you to.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -"Canvasing the World" fine art reproductions, printed on pearl linen and museum-quality cotton rag, are now available.

♪ To order your own fine art reproduction of Sherlock or any editions from the "Canvasing the World" television series, please visit ctwgallery.com.

♪ If you'd like more information on the series or a peek at what's currently on Sean's canvas, you can follow "Canvasing the World" on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, or visit us at canvasingtheworld.tv.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -♪ You're so pretty ♪ ♪ Oh, so pretty ♪ -Manly Beach -- for me, that's the spot.

There's something about living on the water, close to all the pubs, restaurants, and shops and having a national park all the way around you.

When I live in Manly, I don't need a car.

I walk everywhere.

And there's a comfort in knowing that, "Hey, if I want a coffee.

I can walk up the beach, and there it'll be, right next to my favorite restaurant.

Or if I want to catch a large wave or go for a snorkel or a scuba dive, it's literally right there.

♪ I'm by no means a good surfer, but I love it.

It's a bit of a meditation for me.

And Manly -- it's so close to the city, it just makes total sense to live near that beach, because you can be working in the studio, and you can look over your shoulder and see what the waves are doing.

"Oh, it's time to go," and then you're in the waves in about 3 or 4 minutes.

It covers all the things, I think, that make me happy.

Nice to see you.

Good to see you this morning.

Sherlock -- you know, man, I still miss that guy.

You know, I first met him almost 15 years ago on that park bench in Sydney, and we've been fast friends.

And I had a bit of an envy towards him because he loved this area so much that he was willing to live in a cave to enjoy it.

-[ Chuckles ] -Hey, is that Sean?

How's it going, mate?

-They had everything they needed.

They were happy people.

Nothing got them down.

And their only possessions is what they had on their back.

And you know, it made me really consider, "Could I do that?"

How far would I stretch my level of comfort?

And living in a cave?

He kind of made it sound a little appealing.

♪

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