When I’m showing my current work the first comment people typically make is “hm, fish, you must be a fisher-er-woman..” and I typically answer, “Yep, sure am, but not a very good one” and then they follow with stories of their epic fishing trip and iphone photos of their most memorable catch. I might then tell them a bit about my fishing experience or ask them more about their favorite waters but I’ve not explained to many people why I really began to paint fish.
All through art school I focused on painting water - in a graphic way - splashes, flows, underwater depictions - so fish aren’t a terribly far extension from that. But after some years away from school as a full time graphic designer I decided to start using my hands again and made the move to painting seriously. That actually coincided with my first time fly fishing -- Shout out to Jason, owner of Portland Fly Shop down in the Pearl (I owe you a painting). Jason took my dad and I and close friend and his dad down the Deschutes and we had an absolute blast. My waders were far to large, I had never cast a fly rod and I had no idea what to look for on the river - but I caught a few fish (more than Jeff -- had to sorry) and it didn't matter at all that I was a novice, I was fully engaged with the zen like qualities of the sport.
The repetition, the peace, the focus and concentration; nothing else mattered except the perfection of motion to deliver a fly on the water. And what a direct reward for your concentration, a big ‘ol exciting snap of line and splash of the water, then you finesse your way toward pulling the mysterious fish out of the water. Every time it was incredible, the iridescent scales in their completely unique pattern, the amazing color combinations and wild refractions of light, it's something we don't get to see very often as humans.
I had to bring that curiosity back to the studio. Depicting that mystery of flowing water and what lives within it felt like such great subject matter. I wanted to study those moments and see if I could bring them to life in a new way. Painting is an amazing way to actually see something. When you take the time to think about colors, forms and shadows and deliberately mix colors to depict them you truly start seeing things differently. It can be a pretty major change of perspective - if I’ve been painting for a few hours and then go out into the real world the way I see my surroundings is almost hyper in tune - I see shadows more prominently and notice all the tiny nuances of green in a bush. I wanted to see that in the fish, so that’s really why I started painting them. Now you know.
Thanks Jason! (Owner, Portland Fly Shop)
The first fish painting