Classic Angling Magazine with my painting on the cover.

 

 Classic Angling Magazine featured my painting " Wish upon a Star"  on the cover of the most recent issue. Published in the U.K and a great read...  it also has an article on fishing in Mongolia which has always been a dream of mine. 

What I see ...not what I think I see....

   This is a painting I finished awhile back...  it is already sold.  I'm interested in that moment of vision , memory and imagination that collide when you see something beautiful. What a miracle water is.  It's another of those things I'm trying to understand. It's really what this painting is about.  

  

Trico Take

  One of my latest trout paintings...   it's already sold but I thought you might like to see it. I love fishing during the trico hatch.  One of the most tiny and ephemeral of all mayflies.. hatching, molting, mating , laying eggs and dying in just a couple of hours.  A summer time hatch that can  turn a trip to the stream into a one of those perfect moments we are all in search of. 

Gates of Paradise

  This photo is the first of four sculptured panels I've created for the doors in a fly fishing cabinet I'm working on.  they are cold cast bronze but can also be cast in resin.  I have been in awe of "Lorenzo Ghiberti's  Doors" also known as the "Gates of Paradise" for  a long, long  time.  I guess these are my idea of the fisherman's version.  I'm expecting a lot of trout streams and dry fly fishing in Heaven. 

      G.E.M Skues wrote about his idea of " Fishing in the Hereafter"  in a short story that will captivate you.... you can find it in the Armchair Angler. A anthology of provocative  fishing short stories. 

New Smallmouth painting

This is a new painting of a smallmouth , taking a big mayfly off the surface.  I am always amazed how perfectly their markings and colors blend with whatever environ they live in....  I have released them and watched them melt away into the bottom of stream, like they were never real , just an apparition.... and your left wondering if  you just touched a piece of eternity..... 

Smallmouth daze .... and days ....

July 25, partly cloudy, air temp 85 degrees,  water temp 80 degrees, 2- 6 pm ,  water clarity/ medium ....  somewhere in Indiana   

   This little guy came from the same place as big one in the next photo ...  both were fooled by the same fly. 

                                  

                                   .... the hat is salmon colored, not pink.... 

 I caught this guy while fishing with Eric ,  it is even more special when a buddy is there to witness it. Something had taken a chunk out of it's tail, more proof of how tough it is to survive and how important it is to put these fish back.  I've seen some people who fish take stringers of these fish out of the river and it always disappoints me.  A fish this size is at least eight years old, and every one is a miracle of survival.  Why end it? 

                                                                             .......

      There has been a mist in the air above the stream lately , helping create a feeling of anticipation and mystery. I fish for these reasons more than any other. The awe, wonder and memories ....  

My latest painting

" Stripping Line"  is my latest painting... I wanted to paint the feel of a misty rain.... One of my top five fishing days of all time was on the Kennebec River in Maine during a  blizzard caddis hatch,  with landlocked salmon going nuts on dry flys and a misty rain coming down. I waded out to a rock where I could reach the current seam with a long cast... The fly never drifted for long before a fish would  rise and eat it.... the hatch lasted about an hour... an hour that has remained sure and steady ever since.... 

    I have other memories of fishing in the mist ,  sometimes alone or often with friends...  they are all so fine.....