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Published Sep 19. 2015 - 9 years ago

Updated or edited Oct 31. 2020

Fishy artists

Artists whose art is related to fly-fishing

Martin Joergensen

In the end of 2006 I set out on a quest to find artists whose art was in some way related to fly-fishing. The task was not hard since I already knew a few and had contact with them, and through connections, friends, web sites and email I started gathering samples and interviews with these artists.
During the course of the project South African fly fisher and GFF contributor Korrie Broos made articles about African artists to supplement the series.
This page sums up the results so far and links to each of the articles.

Nick Mayer

Nick Mayer's watercolors are large, colorful and stunningly beautiful. Read about his journey from his childhood sketchbook to becoming a full time artist.

The story is told here

Jason Bordash

US artist Jason Bordash works as an electrical designer, but paints beautiful fishing scenes, fish and flies in his spare time. We asked him a few questions.

Read his replies here.

Casey Underwood

I have been connected with Casey on Facebook for a while, originally attracted by his colorful and powerful fish pictures. His fish series has been expanded since we originally made contact, and I rec...

Casey answers some questions here

Trevor Hawkins

Australian artist Trevor Hawkins works with pen and watercolor on high quality paper to produce his beautiful, mostly naturalistic - but also sometimes abstract art

See Trevor's beautiful art here

Gavin Erwin

South African artist Gavin Erwin paints wonderful pictures of fish and fishing - some colorful and abstract, some very naturalistic.

See his pictures here

Travis J. Sylvester

I first noticed Travis' brilliant and colorful art on Facbook and we became online friends. It only took a very short time to realize that he was an obvious candidate for our Fishy Art series. I contacted him and asked my usual row of questions.

Read his replies and see his art here.

Arturas Merkevicius

Lithuania based artist Arturas Merkevicius AKA Art Merk makes beautiful fly fishing themed leather art. We approached with the usual row of questions for fishy artists.

Read his replies and see his art here.

Taylor Garman

Taylor Rose Garman is a Massachusetts based artist. When her father originally asked her to paint a brook trout she obliged, but didn't really think too much of it. Now, when she can't fish or tie, she paints.

Read her story here

Renato Rizzo

Italian artist Renato Rizzo draws beautiful, simple but still very complex and detailed black and white pictures of flies... with a lowly BIC ballpoint pen

Renato shares some pictures and replies here

Sharon Burger

Sharon Burger is a modern day scrimshaw artist from South Africa. She does fine scrimshaw work for knife handles, inlays and more.

See her work and hear her tell here

Rod Sutterby

Rod Sutterby gave us a taste of his beautiful paintings in the book Atlantic Salmon done in cooperation with Malcolm Greenhalgh. In connection with a new series of articles about "Fishy artists" here on GFF we contacted the artist.

See his answers to our questions and some samples of his beautiful art.

Matt Zudweg

American artist Matt Zudweg creates the most amazing carved and painted works in wood. His portfolio contains signs and carved fish as as well as more three-dimensional pieces such as furniture. Some might not consider this "proper art", but trust us. It is!

See Matt's work in this article.

Diane Michelin

Canadian watercolor artist Diane Michelin has been painting for 15 years. "Basically, in each painting, I try to tell a story that represents the day to day events that fuel our passion." as she says in this article presenting her paintings.

See Diane Michelin's beautiful art here

Ad Swier

Dutch Ad Swier is not only a pike fanatic beyond the ordinary but also an artist extraordinaire. His beautiful drawings and paintings have been used in books, calanders and magazines all over the world. We convinced Ad to participate in our series on Fishy Artists.

The result can be seen in this article.

Craig Bertram Smith

The first time Korrie Broos saw one of Craig Bertram Smith's works of art was a pencil sketch he'd made to commemorate a trophy giant kingfish he'd caught, posted on a fly fishing forum. The sketch was magnificent, and Korrie immediately sent Craig an email

to find out more about him and his artistic work.

Vaughn Cochran

Read about Florida artist, guide and store owner Vaughn Cochran's history and see samples of his beautiful art, which stretches from pop art over impressionsitic scenes to sculptures. Cochran paints and sculpts fish and scenes from his home waters as well as other tropical waters.

Read how two passions blend - art and fishing.

Derek DeYoung

"As a young kid developing my skills and vision as an artist, I found that I could find no better subject to paint then the big northern pike and largemouth bass that I would often observe cruising the weed lines out in the bayou."

See Derek DeYoung's fantastic paintings in this article.

Yoshikazu Fujioka

Ever since GFF partner Martin Joergensen first discovered Yoshikazu Fujioka's Japanese web site, which was amongst the first fishing related pages he ever found on the web, he was fascinated with Fujioka's art. Now GFF can present images from "Trouts and Seasons of the Mountain Streams".

Bob White

Bob White is probably best known for his illustrations for John Gierach's long running column in the printed magazine Fly Rod and Reel. Here he tells a bit about how it all started, how he works - and that he also guides and has done so through 27 seasons from south to north, home and abroad.

Pictures and text here

Thomas Weiergang

Thomas is known from the Danish magazine Sportsfiskeren. At a recent editorial meeting, Thomas brought a bunch of framed reproductions of his drawings, and GFF partner Martin Joergensen immediately grabbed him and lured him into participating in our Fishy Art series.

See Thomas' art here

Sean Seal

"I really can't pin down exactly when I started doing artwork. I've always done it." These are the words of Sean Seal when presented with the question "how did it start?". Based in Bay City, Michigan, which is not exactly "a fly fishing paradise" as he says, he has still taken on fly fishing as a subject for his art.

See his works here

Jim Roszel

"I have been an artist and fisherman my entire life. I realized a few years ago after catching a giant striped bass that I wanted a way to remember the fish so I painted the fish life-size with all of the details of the catch." says painter Jim Roszel.

Read more and see his art here

Robin Armstrong

Robin Armstrong is a British painter based in Devon in the UK, whose lifelike watercolors have been featured in magazine articles as well as in books by himself as well as other authors.

See the images and read the interview.

AD Maddox

"She's a Ducati riding, Wyoming roaming, fly fishing girl born in Tennessee... " This is how fly fishing artist AD Maddox is introduced on her web site, and an introduction that has exactly the effect that I suppose was intended: I gotta know more about her!

Read the interview here

Juan Jose Serra

When Argentinean artist Juan Jose Serra approached me and showed me some of his amazing paintings and inquired about being in our Fishy Artists series I was all excited! You will probably understand why when you

see his paintings in this article

Jason Tison

I first noticed Jason Tison's neat pencil drawings when watching a video on YouTube where he shows the process from blank paper to a finished and stunningly beautiful drawing of a blue marlin. I approached Jason, and he replied to my usual set of Fishy Artist questions.

Read his replies and see samples of his art here.

Nick Laferriere

When Canadian Nick Laferriere is not on the water, he's blogging, tying flies, and drawing fish. Recently he started combining the manual drawings and digital processes to create a new expression.

See Nick's art here

Charles Weiss

Charles contacted me as a result of having seen our long-running series on fishy artists, and after having seen his fish carvings I found him more than worthy as a participant. Charles also paints and draws - cartoons and caricatures in particular.

See his art here

David Miller

UK artist David Miller has long been on our wanted list for the Fishy Artist series, and now we can feature some samples of his impressing art and some answers to a few questions.

Check out the article here.

Sam MacDonald

Sam MacDonalds art may at first glance look like paintings, but is actually 3D sculptures made from metal, with a very particular character that lends itself very well to fish and underwater subjects. We confronted him with our usual questions.

Read his replies and see samples of his art here

Adriano Manocchia

A mail ticked in: "One of our clients thought that Adriano Manocchia's art would be a nice addition to your art gallery section." And true enough. Manocchia's beautiful, almost photo realistic art would certainly be a nice addition to our Fishy Artists series.

Learn more and see samples his beautiful art here

Yves Laurent

Canadian Yves Laurent does beautiful wood carvings of fish and other animals - and flies. His work is meticulous and detailed and even the stones are carved in wood!

We asked questions, Yves replied

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