Prairie Landscape

I just completing these two paintings! I really like this brown trout!  If you like it too, you can come see it in person!  Scroll down to find the details.

Big Bruiser Brown

Hey all! I will be displaying my work at Art-A-Whirl in NE Minneapolis! Kate Schiffler has been kind enough to invite me to display my art with her at her woodworking studio in the Thorp Building.  Here is her blurb about the event:

Come on out for Art-A-Whirl! I will have my studio open for people to come in and check out what I’m up to. The Thorp building will have all kinds of fun stuff going on as well. Kid friendly during the day with lots of neat stuff to explore. I will have some beverages and snacks, but Pizza Luce will be selling slices just down the hall if you are super hungry. My pal Ted Hansen will be showing his art in my studio as well.My suite number is 156. Music, Art, Food, and what else could you ask for!? Should be a fun time whether you stop by my shop or not: Friday: 5:00-10:00pm Saturday: NOON-8:00pm Sunday:NOON-5:00 http://www.nemaa.org/content.php?category=webpage+content&content_id=168714936

My posts have been few and far between for the last year because I have been in grad school.  I’ll soon be finishing up my Masters of Education in Art Education from the University of Minnesota.  While I have been in school I’ve written perhaps hundreds of pages worth of papers.  For that reason, I’m not going to be writing much today.  Even with my crazy schedule, I have been able to continue to produce artwork. There is a great artistic energy that is created by expanding one’s horizons, meeting new and interesting people, and teaching talented students. This has been a prolific time for me. I plan on writing more about each piece in the future, but here is a sampling:

Fauve Landscape

 

 

 

Brook Trout Fry

 

 

 

 

Minnesota Grain

11.5″ x 10″ Acrylic on Gessoed Masonite with colored Pencil

Purchase here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/93436189/minnesota-grain

This was painted for an exhibition exploring community in the Twin Cities. In thinking about community it seems that most people here are quite connected to agriculture. This is, after all, the Mill City. In flying over the state, I was struck by how much it looks like a giant agricultural factory, with precise grids for growing crops. All of these crops make their way to the larger cities to be shipped off to feed the world.

I took the idea of the little farming communities being part of the larger community of food production as the theme. By extension, the grain, soybeans, and corn we grow here connects us to the rest of the world.

In the background you can see the quilt-like squares representing the fields. The grain towers are based on some in Minneapolis. Finally, the network of roads (based on the main roads of Minnesota) represents the connectedness of food distribution.

A lot going on in this little painting… It was painted as a sort of study on the theme, but I think it works pretty well on its own.

Largemouth Bass, 18" x 24", Oil on canvas

I finished this painting a few months ago for a custom rod builder, Joe Janetka.  We met on a construction job site and got to talking about our side projects.  After admiring each other’s work, I ended up commissioning a beautiful rod for my fiance’ and he commissioned this painting.

The painting features the fish in its natural habitat pursuing the lure that he used to catch the fish.  The background has looser brushstrokes and implies shapes rather than giving specific detail.  Joe was a great client and let me interpret the scene in the way that I saw fit.

The rod that he made for me was beautiful!  Joe is a great guy to work with and offers incredibly crafted rods for every type of fishing, from big saltwater to tiny ice fishing set ups.  Check it out at he link below:

http://www.janetkacustomfishingrods.com/index.html

Here are some detail shots of the painting…

Rainbow Trout Colors

“Rainbow Trout Colors” 9″x 12″, Oil on board

I’ve been increasingly fascinated with painting color studies rather than full scale fish portraits.  This isn’t to say that I am abandoning full fish portraits.  It is just that I want to explore the theme of fish in different ways.  Since the rainbow trout is one of the most sought after sport fish, is seemed fitting that I should try to capture its colors.

Brook Trout Colors, 20" x 24", Acrylic

There are times when I paint that everything sort of works.  Yesterday I had one of those painting sessions.  I completed this work in less than three hours, but it is probably one of my favorites of the fish color series. This one features the brilliant colors of a spawning Montana brook trout.

I donated this to a fundraiser for a theatre company that I am involved with, Mad Munchkin Productions.  The company is preparing for our upcoming production of “The Man Who Turned in to a Fish”.  Our company focuses on original works that use puppetry and mask to tell the story.  Eventually, I’ll make a post about my creative work with this company, but for now here is a link to the website:

http://www.madmunchkinproductions.com/

Muskie Colors. 16″ x 20″, Acrylic on Canvas

This painting was one that was commissioned by a gentleman who saw my work at clubhouse Yeager in Minneapolis.  He commissioned it for his brother who is a muskie fishing guide.  I had to complete it rather quickly, so I used acrylic. I have been working more and more with acrylic.  I appreciate the speed at which I can apply layers.  The trade-off is that I can’t work wet into wet as much (even with retarder mediums).  If I embrace the medium, I have more fun and can produce better images.  Instead of trying to make acrylics act like oils, I’ve been having a lot of fun just letting acrylics be acrylics.

I think that my art is on the verge of taking a new turn. I’m not sure what it is just yet, but this style of painting with the free brushstrokes and more ambiguous imagery might be the direction I take.  I’ve done a few of these in the past.  Here is the first “fish colors” painting that I did a few years ago:

Brown Trout Colors #1

This painting sold at the Clubhouse Yeager gig. I was surprised it sold because I had kind of written this one off as a sucky painting. I don’t know why I thought this because now that I look at it, I rather like it.

Here is another painting that I did on the brown trout theme:

Brown Trout Colors #2

The quality of this photo isn’t so great.  This was such fun to paint. I painted at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.  I had a little studio set up at my booth and decided it would be fun to paint while I was waiting for customers.  This ended up being a fairly good idea, as I sold all of the paintings that I completed on site.  The guy who bought this one thought it was a print and asked, “how much for the original?”  When I told him that the price was for the original, he bought it then and there.  Probably a good sign that I should paint more of these.

I have decided that it is time to change this blog up a bit.  Originally, it was titled “Fish. Paint. Eat. Repeat”.  The working title is now “Fine Art, Fine Fishing” but I may change that soon. I’ve decided that what I really want to write about is my artistic journey.  To me, fishing is included in this artistic journey as much as painting.  Cooking is to some extent as well, but I’m not as passionate about writing about food.  There are also about 3.7 billion blogs about food, so really, I have nothing original to say when it comes to food.  If I do, I will still share, but it will no longer be a central part of this blog (not that it really was before).

What this blog will be, from here on out, primarily about my artistic journey.  Part of me wants to carefully edit it and have it be a really slick promotional tool for my art.  Another part of me wants to write about whatever random stuff tumbles through my brain.   If this is going to be a true reflection of my artistic process, then the latter will be much more accurate.  This blog, for better or worse, will attempt to show my artistic process as it really is.

With this new approach, I am more willing to share a broader range of my work.  I know from a marketing perspective this is probably a bad idea. Usually artists work to find their niche…the one thing they are known for.  But the more I study the fine artists of the past, the more I realize they went on tangents all the time.  I don’t want to develop just one style or one subject.  I think I’ve been doing that a little too much lately and, quite frankly, it can be a little tedious.

With that, I give you something completely different:

This is an image from a children’s book that I’ve been working on for several years.  My sister-in-law wrote it and I’m doing the illustrations.  Each illustration takes a considerable time to complete. Obviously, this is a far cry from any of my other work, but I wanted to include it to show another side of my art.  More to come on this project later.

Fall

I have been working on a number of smaller paintings in preparation for an upcoming art and craft show. It will be a small show at Clubhouse Yeager in Minneapolis on December 3rd.  I’m excited about this opportunity because I haven’t really been showing my work publicly for a while.  I post most of my stuff online, but nothing compares to seeing art in person. I’m also happy about the venue because it is a classy pub.  I’m hoping the beer with loosen some pocketbooks.  As part of that effort, I’m working on a series of smaller works that I can feel good about selling for less than $50.  Creatively this is also quite rewarding.  I can flesh out an idea in a shorter amount of time.  I’m also able to take a few more risks this way.  Here is an example of a work where I simply improvised:

Trout

 

I’m happy with the way it turned out.  Painting without a plan is liberating, but I never know if it will end up looking good or not. I finished my recent painting session with this one:

Night Scene

This painting uses a little bit heavier application of paint. It was going to be a study for a larger work, but it ended up working quite well as a work in and of itself.  I’ve been studying the impressionist painters recently, which might account for the heavier paint.  I’ve been planning and sketching a new series of paintings addressing environmental threats to native trout species.  This one was originally going to include a single dead fish – a single white shape floating in a sea of black.  It didn’t quite work, so I left it out.  I think that it might work better on a larger scale, where the fish can be very small.  The unnatural lighting in the sky is an allusion to the artificial lights of a nearby housing development.  The scene is quite simple, but there is quite a bit going on in my mind as I paint it.  Is it a scene of the calm of night?  Or is it a scene of melancholy?  Both perhaps.  I’m not sure exactly, but I do like the way it turned out.

 

Growing up in Dillon, Montana,  I thought nothing of the name “Bloody Dick”.  It wasn’t until after I left that I realized there are some rather bazaar names to come out of this area. I recently took a trip back home with some good friends from Minnesota.  They couldn’t help but get a kick out of Bloody Dick creek.  The fact that it was in Beaverhead county was the icing on the cake.  I’m sure there are other oddities, but I know there is at least one peak named “Molly’s tit”.  So there you have it…Montana was settled by a bunch of third graders.  I think the actual story is that there was an Englishman who lived in the area who said bloody this and bloody that a lot.  Whatever the story of the origin, Bloody Dick Creek offers some of the finest small stream fishing that Montana has to offer.

I would not have said that when I was a kid.  Sure the nearby reservoir Lake had lots of finicky brookies (strange for the species), but the stream was nothing special.  Cattle were (and are) allowed to graze right along the stream and mucked it up pretty badly.  I think they have cut down on that quite a bit now as I didn’t see any fresh manure and the stream looks very healthy.  Growing up, a 7 or 8 inch brookie was good sized.  They still aren’t monsters (and never will be), but the habitat now supports some very healthy sized fish.  My uncle Eric, a legendary fisherman, pulled out what he said were the healthiest fish he’s ever seen in Reservior Lake (12″ plus on some). The creek yielded several in the 8-10″ range and a few pushing 12″  You need lots of patience or a float tube if you really want to catch them in the lake, but it is well worth it.

As for Bloody Dick creek, all you need is stealth.  The fish will bolt and shut off if they even detect you are near.  Shadows are a killer. You have to be willing to move…a lot!  Once you take a few casts you’ve pretty much spooked the fish out of a hole.  The advantage is that the habitat is absolutely perfect along the whole stream.  Spook a fish?  No big deal, move ten feet and you’ve got a new hole.  It is hard to believe you can have miles of stream all to yourself.

If you don’t spook them, these fish aren’t picky.  In late summer, when we went, we used caddis patterns, royal wulff, and hopper patterns.  All the big guys were caught on wulff-like hopper patterns (one in picture).  If I had to pick one fly to fish on any mountain stream it would be a leggy royal wulff.  Looks like lots of things and the red triggers violent attacks.  No need to do anything but dry flies.  Using stealth and delicate long casts, one can expect to land 20-30 per hour.  If you’re not catching that many, you are doing something wrong.  That said, you are going to catch some tiny little buggers (seriously tiny – I often times backast a minnow by accident).  Using a big fly will reduce your take, but you’ll hook up with the bigger fish.

Montana has the reputation for trout fishing for a reason.  The big rivers have the monsters, but if you want what I consider the best fishing experience the state has to offer, stay at the Bloody Dick cabin (where we stayed), and enjoy miles of perfect trout habitat all to yourself.  And all on public land!! (That’s right…taxes make it possible…just my cup of tea)