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Great Fly Fishing Artists?

8652 Views 54 Replies 18 Participants Last post by  Skip Enge
I'm enjoying the art of fly fishing and am now taking up oil painting with a lot of difficulty. I hear from others to paint what you have a passion for. I love seeing great fly fishing photography that captures the moment as it puts me right there on the river or lake with all the smells and sounds. Could I create this with a paint brush? Maybe someday or at least I'm going to give it a shot. We have some great artists in our area and on theses pages so I am wondering who is your favorite fly fishing artist of past or present?...or any wildlife artist for that matter?
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Joseph Tomelleri is amazing. Skilled scientific technician.
Charles Hudson from 100+ years ago was a master.

Mark Susinno might be your style? Oil/Acrylic in full fishing scenes
http://www.natureartists.com/artists/artist_artwork.asp?ArtistID=665

JJ Audubon, as far as nature artist, is my favorite. No cameras, crappy conditions. Amazing work. If you get a chance to see his originals in person-often only in New York..do it !
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Randy, just looked at your artist website. You are already an established artist! Good for you, and great work!
Thanks Gyrfalcon...Mark Susinno does great work. I'm thinking more of the landscape/fisherman's experience. I remember looking down a beach on the Kitsap Peninsula seeing multiple fly fishermen with there lines flying...It was a thing of beauty...or a line being taken down a beautiful slow moving stream with anticipation on the face of the fisherman. There is a lot of beauty out there even if the fishing is slow. I would really like to bring these moments inside the home when we can't be out in the water.

Water Plant Sky Natural landscape Paint
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Very good, I see what you are getting to in mind. Yes, the scenery is/ or more important than the fishing. I have 2 hard rules fishing. Pretty scenery, 0 people-mostly. Crowds/shotguns/loud boats=go home.
Fly fishing is a gentle and quiet sport. What you see while connected to the stream with your feet is the magic. I don't do well in boats.
Hope to see your work continue!
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Arthur Shilstone. He seems really focused on images of casting and of hooked fish, though, and I think the subject offers opportunity for a much richer treatment.

I like your art, too. The blocky style is almost Rungius-esque. If you haven't visited the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, get out there.
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I like Winslow Homer, Thomas Aquinas Daly and Russell Chatham. Although Winslow Homer's and Daly's are the only paintings that I have seen in a gallery. Chatham's I have only seen in books, magazines or online.
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Some dude put a "De" in front of my name and is making a fortune painting fish...:D
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Those look like "happy trees" :)

Sorry, I've recently been watching the old TV oil painting series (with the guy in an Afro) on Netflix and he paints mostly scenery with what he calls happy trees.
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Those look like "happy trees" :)

Sorry, I've recently been watching the old TV oil painting series (with the guy in an Afro) on Netflix and he paints mostly scenery with what he calls happy trees.
I didn't ever watch that show although my Mother did get his videos and paints. She made a great attempt at it.
He was a pretty good artist and I picked up a few tips from his shows.... his comments while instructing, however, were very similar to Mr Rogers so his sickening sweetness was hitting 11 on a dial that tops out at 10...

You can only take so much of "friendly rocks", "happy trees" and "smiling clouds"... before you finally mute the show.
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I think Bob Ross was a career military guy who fought in Vietnam, so he went the other way and went happy and joyful. That makes his cotton- candy glee much easier to take.
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Yeah, I seem to remember reading something along those lines. I don't really mute the sound but sometimes his reference to inanimate objects that he is painting is beyond the pale (whatever the hell that means) :)

He basically painted landscapes like the ones some folks bought at Sears to hang on their walls. But that's okay, like I said, I picked up some painting tips from the show back when I was painting with oil.

I now watch the re-runs because it's kind'a relaxing to watch someone paint... silly comments and all.
Yeah, I know alot of people who got their start watching his shows so that is a plus. Just read he made $15 million on his supplies sales. Good for him ..Sadly, he died 20 years ago, too young at 52.
Sadly, he died 20 years ago, too young at 52.
No kidding! Now that I'm almost 65, 52 seems way too young!
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65 is still mighty young! I just saw a pic in the paper of my invertebrate zoology teacher I had in college when I was 20's..he is 96 and still going strong. Amazing!
Thanks Gyrfalcon...Mark Susinno does great work. I'm thinking more of the landscape/fisherman's experience. I remember looking down a beach on the Kitsap Peninsula seeing multiple fly fishermen with there lines flying...It was a thing of beauty...or a line being taken down a beautiful slow moving stream with anticipation on the face of the fisherman. There is a lot of beauty out there even if the fishing is slow. I would really like to bring these moments inside the home when we can't be out in the water.

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You have a great sense of hue, saturation, color.. whatever word I am looking for. Really, really nice work!
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I always liked Skip Enge's flyfishing watercolors. I have this one on my home office wall.
(and yes, that's me in the painting)

Water Boat Watercraft Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Vehicle


Skip and I were once quite close. I hope he's doing okay. I haven't talked with him in years.
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I think of water as fluid movement. Never still. Everything touching it seems to move. Rarely still, the subject sharply defined in a moment of contemplation. In oil, best represented by Turner.
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Hah! Just remembered. Turner's Oils are still fluid, flowing. Kilauea in oils and pigment after 15o years.

You can always grow your own style.
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