I want to share with you a small part of my journey thus far as an artist and why I am now painting Fly Fishing Landscapes.
I was raised in Arizona in a ‘Scouting” family mostly because my Dad loves the outdoors. He was born and raised in the northeast and often went deep sea fishing with his Dad and brother. After moving to Arizona, when I was 5, the years progressed and our family grew to 5 boys and 2 girls. He and my mom became involved in Scouting. This meant camping and fishing and spending lots of time outdoors.
As I grew, I learned to work through the ‘competition’ of my brothers and was able to snag my Dad’s attention to take me fishing with him. I loved our time together. And he taught me to cast, fish, row a boat, clean the fish and take the time to ‘unsnag’ my line when I ended up with my pole’s fishing line hopelessly caught in the weeds where I was sure there must be a big fish just waiting to be caught by me. So many adventures to share but for now I will say that growing up ‘outdoors’ with my family participating together in these adventures created in me a love of nature.
I have always been an artist. I loved crayons and coloring books. I also loved learning to sew and made both ‘Barbie’ clothes and ‘G.I Joe’ clothes as well as my own. I loved helping my Dad do woodworking in our basement. But more than anything, I loved the ‘paint by number’ oil painting kits I would get as birthday and Christmas presents. I would choose to do those above almost anything. These taught me so much about color, oils, lights & darks and patience.
After I was married and we had our son, my husband and I took him hiking and fishing and camping. And I was again back in environments I loved! I took a class in oil painting at a community college and began painting as an adult. I found I loved painting on wood and favorite subjects? Anything having to do with nature!
Move forward to the last decade and a half and having not painted for many years began again after we sold our stained glass companies of almost 25 years and moved to North Carolina. I journeyed through taking several classes with brilliant artists and began painting birds (which I love and will continue to paint) and so many aspects of nature: flowers, bears and other animals and fish. It was when I began painting fish and fishing flies that I began to realize how much I enjoyed the process of putting onto wood or canvas some of my memories of fishing. And today I have evolved that into painting Fish and Fly Fishing Landscapes. I paint them mostly on Live Edge Wood. There are so many beautiful wood species! These are so much fun and I get to be so creative with them. When doing commissioned pieces, I am asked to include subjects personal to my client that really makes the paintings unique and special and an heirloom for their family. I am thrilled to paint pleasurable moments of fishing and the outdoors that my clients fondly remember every time they look at their painting.
I paint to inspire the viewer and each of my clients to remember those pleasant memories they have had of the outdoors and fishing. I also hope to motivate people with my art to create memorable adventures for themselves and their families, doing and participating in those outdoor activities they love.
