Author John Gierach and guide, artist and illustrator Bob White will mark their 100th column together in Fly Rod & Reel's July/October issue. Their first collaboration was in July of 1988, when Bob illustrated John's article, "East Big Fish." After Lee Wulff's death in 1991, the editors at Rod & Reel asked John to take over the assignment of writing the magazine's closing column, and Bob was asked to illustrate it. Their first regular column together, "The Sporting Life," was published in March of 1992. The illustration for the 100th column is a painting of John fishing his home water, and is titled "Close To Home." The accompanying image has yet to be released and will be unveiled in the 100th issue.

Bob has produced a set of limited edition prints from the paintings that illustrate the 1st and 100th "Sporting Life" columns, and Fly Rod & Reel will be giving two of these sets away in a sweepstakes that is described on Fly Rod & Reel's website at www.flyrodreel.com. In addition to the prints, the grand-prize winner will receive a new Boron II-MX rod courtesy of the R. L. Winston Rod Co.

To check out more of Bob's fine artwork visit his Web site at www.whitefishstudio.com. You can also see his work represented on MidCurrent's Fly Fishing Artists page.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you hadn't clicked through to Jeff Kennedy's daily fly drawings from MidCurrent's homepage this month, we wanted to mention that Kennedy is still at it, doing some pretty cool stuff. If you're like me and depend on daily inspiration, I suggest you check out "Drawing Flies 365." You'll find flies drawn and painted on wood, tablecloths, snow and plain old white paper, all of them different and all of them imaginative.

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If you hadn't noticed by now, we like fly fishing art. We also like good writing. This week's excerpt of a book by Ed Gray and Arthur Shilstone exemplifies the best of both. Gray, as you may know, was the founder of Gray's Sporting Journal. Shilstone has achieved worldwide fame as a watercolor artist, and his paintings grace many corporate and private collections.

See a sample of their work from a collaborative effort called Flashes in the River (Willow Creek Press, April 1996, 127 pages). In it Gray talks about Alaskan fly fishing, its awesome beauty and its incredible fish, and Shilstone shows what a great watercolorist sees in big rivers.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's hard not to like the intensity that Mike Savlen brings to his fish paintings, which include images of steelhead, salmon, trout, stripers and tuna. Using as many as 50 layers of acrylic and wash, he creates a world of blues and oranges that somehow brings the whole spectrum of colors with it. Savlen's work is featured on the homepage of MidCurrent this month, and you can see more of his work on his Web site, www.savlenstudios.com.

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Canadian artist Bruno Bobak is the subject of an award-winning retrospective on his life and work, a book put forth to him by friends as he fished the North West Forks on the Miramichi River. "Bobak: A Full Palette (Goose Lane Editions, $65), which won this year’s Atlantic Book Award for Best Atlantic Published Book, is the first coffee table book about the Polish-born painter who lives in Fredericton with his wife, artist Molly Lamb Bobak." Elisa Barnhard on Canada's TheChronicleHerald.ca.

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Anyone who knows Bob White describes him as self-effacing, intelligent, and highly talented, both as a painter and a fishing guide. Chris Niskanen interviewed him for the St. Paul [Minnesota] Pioneer Press and gets him to speak about how he got into fishing and painting and what motivates him to sit down with brush and canvas. "The sporting artists today are generally selling to collectors or enthusiasts. It feels different to me, although I see a lot of people doing a retro thing today. Modern painters are doing the 1950s sporting art. It's cabin art. It's cool. But the great sporting artists of the past century did art that told a story."

By the way, White did all of the illustrations for the new edition of Tom Rosenbauer's Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide (The Lyons Press, January 2007, 288 pages), which we consider an essential part of any good fly fishing library. White's illustrations are phenomenal -- some of the best illustrations of fly fishing techniques we've ever seen. Bob's art, which has graced the pages of MidCurrent, can be seen on his Web site at www.whitefishstudio.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't noticed by now, for several months MidCurrent has been featuring the work of talented fly fishing artists from all over world on its homepage. This month we're happy to showcase the work of Diane Michelin, who lives and paints in the heart of British Columbia's steelhead country. If you like fly fishing art, it's worth spending a few minutes in the gallery of luminescent watercolors on her Web site.

For samples of work by the other fine artists we've featured, visit our new Artist's page.

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Pat Clayton's underwater photos of native and non-native trout do a terrific job of capturing color, so much so that many of them look like paintings. If you've ever wondered what a sea-run cutthroat in California's Smith River or a Greenback from the glacier-fed streams of Colorado looks like, this is the place to go. (Thanks to reader Michael Santangelo for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Funny things happen while fly fishing in Mongolia. Mrs. Gates, director of the Seattle Art Musueum, found time there to lament the absence of public space for art with Martha Wyckoff, a board member of the Trust for Public Land in Seattle. Their common interest led to the purchase of "a former fuel storage and transfer site for Union Oil of California, was in the final stages of an environmental cleanup and was sliced by a major street artery and an active railroad." Next week the Olympic Sculpture Park opens on the Seattle waterfront. In the case the name doesn't ring a bell: Mimi Gardner Gates is wife of Bill Gates Sr. Hilarie M. Sheets in the International Herald Tribune.

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Artist Flick Ford and writer Dean Travis Clarke combined talents to produce the recently released FISH: 77 Great Fish of North America (The Greenwich Workshop Press, October 2006, 208 pages), a portfolio of watercolor paintings and text that tells the story of many of the important fish of North America, both fresh- and saltwater. Barbara Livingston Nackman writes about Flick Ford and the book for the Westchester, New York Journal News: "Fishing is a 'blood sport,' [Ford] said, explaining that it is part of the hunter-gatherer cycle of life and connects us to our food. 'In order to live, something must die,' he said. 'I keep it honest and believe you have to not exploit nature, be thankful for its offerings and not take more than you need.'" FISH: 77 Great Fish of North America on Amazon.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last thing you'd call Mike's Williams's fish paintings and sculptures is "formulaic." His art will be on display at South Carolina's Columbia College for the next few weeks. "The exhibition includes his expressionist paintings of fish, marshes, swamps and coastal areas, as well as steel sculptures. The art always goes beyond straightforward depictions; it reflects his love of the outdoors and his spiritual connection to it." Jeffrey Day on TheState.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Beyond skillful writing, Tom Chandler of TroutUnderground.com produces marvelous photos, as evidenced by his recent series of closeups of trout from California's Upper Sacramento River. And he does all this with a point-and-shoot camera. "The result was a series of underexposed photos of trout with deeply saturated scales. And when you’re given underexposed lemons, you make richly color-saturated lemonade."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While in Denver at the Fly Fishing Retailer show on Thursday, we are going to try to make time for the grand opening of Filson's new store there, if only to see James Prosek finish his 18- by 24-foot painting of a cutthroat trout. "Ten percent of proceeds from sales during the grand-opening event will be donated directly to the Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited, a national organization dedicated to restoring and protecting North America's trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds." Felicia Hunter in the Connecticut Post.

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"'It was a huge fish, maybe a 50-incher,' he said. The hook-up, though, didn't feel right to [Bob] White. 'After about five minutes, the muskie just let go. Up floated a 12-inch, shredded smallmouth. (The muskie) must have been lying in wait when the smallmouth hit my fly. I had 'em both on.'" Chris Niskanen describes drifting the Flambeau with artist Bob White and husband and wife guide team Larry Mann and Wendy Williamson in search of "muskie garages." In the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

If you haven't yet seen Bob White's extraordinary wildlife art, you can see many examples on his Web site, www.whitefishstudio.com.

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"'You must understand that "Russell The Personality" is a wholly separate character from the life of Russell Chatham the painter, though at the same time they are inseparable,' says William Randolph Hearst III, one of Chatham’s closest friends. 'No matter what he does, his adventure with it becomes larger than life.'" Todd Wilkinson pens probably the best potrait yet of fly fishing author and noted painter Russell Chatham on NewWest.net. For those who appreciate Chatham's writing or painting, there are some interesting details of how Chatham's artistic vision grew out of learning to adapt to the vast expanses of Montana.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Three members of the Idaho state fish hatchery staff have discovered a surprising level of interest in their pressed paintings of sockeye, chinook and steelhead (they've also done sturgeon and cutthroat trout). Their Web site, FourSockeye.com, includes a gallery of their efforts, which combine acrylics, watercolors and ink pen. "All the fish but the cutthroat have one thing in common: They are all listed as either endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Young and his compatriots intend to paint all listed Idaho fish, with only the bull trout remaining to be done. The fish are not killed solely for the art, and each fish becomes a set of 350 limited-edition prints that sell for between $70 and $100." Nate Poppino on Idaho's MagicValley.com.

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This article about photographer Stephen Shore captures a vivid comparison between camera art and fly fishing, the artist's other passion. "'Fishing, like photography, is an art that calls forth intelligence, concentration and delicacy.' When I read that quote back to him, he nods and says: 'Now I'd add the word "attention". That's the big connection. Fishing and photography are both exercises in attention.'" Sean O'Hagan also notes that author and realism monger Raymond Carver was an avid fly fisher. In the U.K.'s The Guardian.

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I'm always intrigued by the techniques accomplished artists use to capture the luminescence and transparency of water. It seems to be the subject through which fishing artists write their signatures. So when I came across the Web gallery of Bob White of Whitefish Studio in St. Croix, Minnesota a couple of weeks ago, I was mighty impressed. Take a look at "Small Fry - Brookie" or "The Titan." When you look at some of Bob's fish paintings, you're looking through eyes that know water.

P.S. Bob does an entertaining weekly journal called "The Thursday Morning Art Review" that you can sign up to recieve via email. Here's a sample.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Bend, Oregon's High Desert Museum this coming week you'll have a chance to see an exhibition of photos and images by Charles Lindsay, photographer for Upstream : Fly-Fishing in the American West. And if you're a trout fisher and don't know about the book, which was co-authored by Thomas McGuane and published by Aperture in May 2000, you're missing an angling epicurean's delight. It has our highest recommendation.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maryland artist Jay Falstad just paints fish. But he's good enough at it that his paintings, which often depict someone's trophy catch, are being sold at the rate of 75 or more per year. "Orders come from around the world. Fly-fishing great Lefty Kreh owns one. Wives buy his paintings as gifts for their husbands, often preemptively: They don't want a fish carcass hanging on the living-room wall." You can see examples of Falstad's work at his Web site: www.fishpaintings.com. Art Carey in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this fascinating piece about the "relabeling" of fine art to attract higher prices, a cover of the Atlantic Salmon Journal recently showed a painting that had been altered (and not by the magazine) to show the signature of John Whorf instead of the lesser-known but real artist watercolorist Henry McDaniel. "The Atlantic Salmon Journal cover painting, identified as Whorf's 'Fishing in the Rapids,' had appeared with the caption 'One of the beautiful unnamed pools' in a spread of Henry McDaniel watercolors in the July 1957 issue of the Ford Times, a magazine published by the Ford Motor Co." Carolyn Y. Johnson in The Boston Globe.

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Andrew Laszlo is required study for students at most film schools. Born in Hungary in 1926, he survived World War II and later earned Emmy nominations for "The Man Without a Country" (1973) and the 1980 mini-series "Shogun." Now he spends his time writing and fly fishing in northwest North Carolina. Mark Burger in the Winston-Salem Journal.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Luminous' is the first word that comes to mind when you see Mr. Fujioka's watercolors and acrylics. This Japanese artist offers a vision of depth and light that is quite rare among wildlife artists. Fortunately there is an entire Web site dedicated to his work. Even better, the Web site is an excellent guide to fishing various mountain streams in Japan. This site is definitely worth a visit or two (or three).

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Larry Burton earned degrees in electrical engineering, physics and pure mathematics, then decided he'd rather earn his living outdoors. For 35 years he did, hauling his 4-by-5 camera -- one of the old boxlike cameras with a cloth to cover the photographer's head -- around the state and its two national parks, taking pictures that would grace many a Montana, Glacier and Yellowstone calendar." This tribute by Vince Devlin of the Missoula Montana Missoulian includes an example of Burton's characteristically dramatic photograpy.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was fishing that led Winslow Homer to the Adirondacks of New York State to record moments in American angling like that captured in "Casting, A Rise" (1889) and "Pickerel Fishing" (1892). "To paraphrase the American art critic Robert Hughes, if you want to see Thoreau's America turning into Teddy Roosevelt's, then Homer's the artist for you." An exhibition of 15 of Homer's works made while visiting Minerva and Keene Valley is on display at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, through September 6.

If you're a fan of Homer's work or American sporting art, you might want to consider Winslow Homer: Artist and Angler (2003). "Homer's fly-fishing paintings are an immensely varied and little-understood aspect of his art. They serve as a counterpoint to all his other work, especially in the decades of the 1880s and beyond when fly-fishing represented a regular and sustained activity for the artist."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

National Public Radio interviews James Prosek about his artist's abode and shows a selection of his work on their Web site. Prosek is the author of Trout: An Illustrated History and other books.

"His Yankee farmhouse is a model of order, with a prized collection of antique farm and fishing tools placed as if in a museum. But his studio in the schoolhouse is a separate world -- somewhere between a bachelor pad and a boyhood fort. 'It's my little room,' he says. 'All of my stuff is here and no one can get at me.'"

The page also lists link to a 1999 interview with Mr. Prosek about his The Complete Angler: A Connecticut Yankee Follows In the Footsteps of Walton.

(Thanks to reader Zach Matthews for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've written about Duane Hada's artistic talent for painting trout before. Steve Brigman offers this brief bio of Hada in the Arkansas News-Leader. And here's an example of Hada's unique perspective called "Holding Pool."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I want to see just how bad my photography truly is, I go to Brian O'Keefe's site and look at what is possible with outdoor and fishing photography. Granted, it's taken Mr. O'Keefe a lifetime to perfect his craft, but the reward (for us) is color, lighting and perspective that define an upper limit for angling photography.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's telling that the headline of this ArtToday article is "Grandson of Gottardo Piazzoni At Chatham Gallery." Gottardo Piazzoni was a great landscape painter and the grandfather of Russell Chatham.

The ArtToday piece delivers the most detailed biography of Russell Chatham I've seen. Though a bit dated, it gives a sense of the breadth of the man's talents, from landscape painting to selling fine food to writing. The article doesn't mention Mr. Chatham's obsession with fly fishing, but it does list his three great books on the subject: The Angler's Coast, Silent Seasons, and Dark Waters.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Australian artist and fly fisher Michael Ramsden does some really extraordinary work using oil and shelac on canvas, later transforming his work with fire. Take a look at some of these luminous pieces on the Ray Hughes Gallery Web site.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are a fine bunch of photos of Lefty fishing at home and around the world on his Web site. The photos speak for themselves.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't seen Charles Lindsay's and Tom McGuane's book Upstream: Fly Fishing in the American West, you are missing a unique artistic perspective on flies, rivers and fly fishing. From this notice of a new exhibit opening at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, it seems Mr. Lindsay is going to keep keep testing the boundaries of photographic expression. It's incredible stuff.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"For James Prosek, the fascination of trout lies in their colors, an entirely sensible preoccupation for a skilled watercolorist. In his latest book, 'Fly-Fishing the 41st,' he describes a quest to catch, identify and photograph or sketch the varieties of brown trout with their own distinctive markings that inhabit streams from Spain to Kyrgyzstan along the same parallel of latitude as his home in Easton, Conn...."

Read Entire Review in The New York Times

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)