Trout fishing has been in my blood since childhood, and it provides the backdrop for many of my favorite memories.
When I was a teenager, I worked at Howard Prairie Lake Resort in Southern Oregon. Above the fireplace was a beautiful, mounted Rainbow Trout that I was fascinated with.
Years later, after moving to Spokane, WA, found myself fishing for Bass most of the time. One day caught a trophy size largemouth bass so I looked into having it mounted. The cost shocked me and I decided then and there that I was never going to keep any fish that I caught unless I planned to eat it that day.
In the late 80’s, I was working in an art gallery while I attended class at Spokane Falls Community College. Every day I framed artwork created by other artists. Occasionally I had an opportunity to work on something really interesting like a shadow box frame with some float mounted objects or a print. This is how the idea to create my float mounted fish prints came about. The notion of creating something that looked like a mounted fish but was more of a contemporary art piece has been in the back of my mind since 1989.
Fast forward to 2019 – my wife and I have raised three beautiful daughters, put them through college, and I’ve started to paint again. Watercolor has always been my medium of choice, partly because my parents both painted with watercolor. One of the fist things I painted was a tiny four-inch rainbow trout. The idea of float-mounting was still in my head, so it became the experiment.
After several more attempts, I’ve perfected the process. The artwork I am producing now are limited edition prints of my original watercolor paintings. Once the pint is made on high quality, archival paper, I cut the fish out one at a time by hand with and X-Acto knife. Next, I hand color the cut edge of each print so the white of the paper won’t show. I mount the fish on a hand-cut foam core backing which is then mounted to the backing mat where I sign and number each one individually. Finally I cut and build a shadow box mat which goes into the custom frames I build myself.
I am proud to say that every part of the float-mounted limited edition fish prints are made by me in my Spokane Valley, WA studio, with the exception of the printing which is done by a trusted local printer in Spokane. These pieces are unique for their appearance and the fact that each one is hand made. I have limited the edition of each piece to 100 prints total. Originally, I would say that this was because there are just so much dang work to make. Apparently that isn’t going to stop me from painting new fish. I’ve completed the six Pacific Northwest trout that I originally set out to do plus the coveted Steelhead. Now I’m setting my sites on their cousins – the Pacific salmon species. People ask me all the time when I plan to start painting salmon so please stay tuned, they’re coming.