You can be the proud owner of this fantastic original brown trout oil painting!!  I created this piece specifically for the Ann Arbor Trout Unlimited Annual Convservation Banquet.  The painting is part of the LIVE AUCTION.  The event is April 11th, 2013- you can purchase tickets HERE.  I was honored to be invited to the event as a Featured Artist, and my hope is this painting can contribute to all the conservation efforts TU Ann Arbor is a part of!

                                    "Steelhead Abstract"

For sizing and pricing information, please click on the Gallery.  Contact Becca for inquires.  Matted Photo Prints are currently available under the Merchandise page.  Canvas Giclee Reproductions are in the proofing stage and will be ready in 1-2 weeks.  

BOTH paintings will be on display for the first time at the MIDWEST FLY FISHING EXPO this weekend!!

FACE THE PAST:  Once the idea hit me it was quite simple.  I often use 1 or more source photos for my paintings and have kept all of the source images either still tacked on my inspiration wall or retired in a folder under my studio desk.  Really they have all fulfilled their purpose as all my beautiful paintings have already been produced from them!  Keeping them around was maybe a bit neurotic and a barrier for new ideas to really develop.  Fish related or nature related, it was time for the pictures to evolve!  

SPONTANEITY:  Once all my old photographs were collected, I sat on the studio floor and flipped all of them over.  All I saw now was about 50 or so blank white pieces.  I grabbed my black sharpie and while looking around at current works in progress or new inspiration photos I had tacked on the wall, I drew quick line sketches of whatever initally grabbed my attention.  Lines of fish: patterns, eyes, fins, lips, gills.  Lines in nature:  bends in a river, leaves, waterfalls, trees, clouds.  Lines in my paintings:  anything noted in my works in progress.  Whatever was NEW was getting drawn on the OLD…lets just see what might happen??

INSTINCT:  Now I cut out the shapes I had drawn on the back of the old photos.  I still have not looked to see what the actual image was on the front of the photograph.  This stage was me purely allowing the drawing based from my present influences to direct the shape I would cut out.  The overall shape and what interior spaces I would cut out were all directed at random, in that I let my instincts guide me what to leave as positive & negative space.  Xacto knife skills required at this point.

*COOL POINT #1:  Letting it go.  Sometimes I wanted to flip the image over so bad to see what I was cutting out.  But that would be going backwards- and annihilate the whole objective of the project.  

*COOL POINT #2:  Since the images were always flipped over, I never knew if I was sketching a fish related drawing on the back of a fish image or nature image- and vice versa.  Just interesting to note.  

THE RESULT:  I made a series of collages using my newly transformed "past imagery" shapes.  Again, instinct was the driving force in my selection of which particular pieces to start with.  The first collages started out joining just 2-4 shapes to make one collage.  By the end I was using 6-9 shapes to make one collage.  Sometimes I just overlapped shapes, sometimes I linked them together (looping or weaving the shapes).  Some collages took me 1 minute to create, others took 20 minutes.   Some were more successful than others.  The objective in these were just to create "pleasing compositions"- I worked to create visual balance among the shapes, the colors, and the spatial arrangement on the white background.

Here is a little video to show what is happening with some projects I'm working on:

What I want to start sharing are some self-imposed "projects" that I am engaging in as tools to answer or at least explore my questions about how my work is changing and where I want it to go.  From the very beginning my work has been an investigation of why "my love of the outdoors was in a way, paralleled with acknowledging the natural beauty of fish patterns." (thank you Artist Statement!).  To do so I've found I have gravitated toward the method of collage as its something I've always loved…and essentially collaging is the process in my mind that I work through as I'm painting- its how I work to create my imagery- linking fish, to landscape, to color, to form, to line- all is connected.  Working in layers.  Its how I make connections personally, and how I hope my paintings can make connections to viewers.  So by taking a different approach for my side projects, part of the experiment is to see what I learn from it, and what others may see.  …this may or may not be successful, my questions may get answered tomorrow or maybe not in another 10 years, maybe I learn nothing, or maybe I discover something totally new…this is just simply another aspect in my work that I want to spend more time exploring. 

My latest oil painting is a large sized abstract of a brown trout.  I focused in on the gill plate for this piece.  I kept discovering relationships between the round forms and linear angles of the gills to the many spots of the brown trout.  I brought the eye into the composition to keep the play on round objects in the painting.  The colors…unbelievable!  I only enhance what incredible colors I see in the trout.  They took on a life of their own, imparting a vibrance to the work- I feel an electrical charge when looking at this- it awakens my emotions, much like what happens when I'm enjoying the quiet pulse of the outdoors.  I hope your eyes enjoy the trip viewing this painting.  Mine continue to do…

See the image in the Gallery for more information.

Steelhead season is here!  And so is this fine looking steelhead portrait on canvas…the idea behind this piece was simple:  in. your. face.  I wanted to honor everything that is bold about this fish.  For the baselayer I dragged across a palette of colors just as I would see as the steelhead go rushing by.  For the entire top layer I kept it stictly to brushwork, using lines to mimic the fish: aggressive, raw, unbridled.  And of course there is the eye, to capture that look is to capture the spirit of the fish itself.  I hope you enjoy.  Steelhead Ablaze, 30" x 40", oil on canvas, more info here in the Gallery.

The holiday season is here!  Check out the Merchandise page for updated selections of unique items perfect for the angler or art aficionado on your shopping list.  Enjoy free shipping as my gift to you!

I was sent this picture of my display at the Great Lakes Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers Expo.  Looks great!  This event took place last weekend in Holt, MI.  2 years ago this was my very first fly fishing show I attended, so it has a special meaning for me- as it marks the beginning of "year 3"- I look forward to what lies ahead!!

Below is a picture of my first display in 2010