Canvasfish

Simms-DeYoung T-Shirts now available at Cabela’s

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:58:16 +0000

Check them out at the link below:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0076412956324a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Product_liberal&QueryText=deyoung&sort=all&Go.y=0&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

ALL HOLIDAY ORDERS must be placed by noon on 12/21 to arrive by Christmas

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:08:16 +0000

Please note that ALL HOLIDAY ORDERS must be placed by noon on 12/21/09 to arrive by Christmas. Otherwise, any orders placed after that time period will not be going out again until 12/30/09 so get your Holiday orders in now. Thanks and have a great Holiday from Canvasfish.com.

New series of trout paintings-”Negative Space Trout”

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:26:36 +0000

This new series of paintings came to me from a couple different ideas. First I’ve always really enjoyed the classic fish studies of trout done in watercolor paint with a white background. Second, as much as I love very detailed realistic paintings, I’ve always found simple sketchbook drawings to be even more interesting. For this series, the color and patterns of the trout are the negative space of the painting, and the fish study itself is just a simple paint sketch.

(An Artist’s insight) How did I come up with the Fish Face Paintings?

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:40:01 +0000

I’m often asked how I came up with the Abstract Fish Face series. As much as I’d like to say it was just a brilliant epiphany, it wasn’t. It happened over the course of a few years. Back when I first graduated from Kendall, an art school in Grand Rapids Michigan, I had no idea what to do with my degree and talents. At that time I was serving tables at the Olive Garden. My wife Janell told me she thought that the server job was only getting in the way of my brand new career as a professional artist…..what ever that was. So I quit my job as a waiter, and put all my efferts into becoming a successful artist. Since college really didn’t give me any ideas of how to do that, I went with the advice of my parents, and started showing at as many summer art shows as I could. I look back on that time with such fond memories. We would make about $500 – $1500 at most shows, but once in a while we would not even cover the entrance fee. At that point I was still searching for my style as an artist. In my booth were oil paintings of fish in all kinds of different styles; underwater scenes, studies, whimsical illustrations, pencil renderings, but none of them really stood out as my own thing, being completely recognizable as a “DeYoung”. After finishing a of couple fish portraits, I started thinking about how the actual shape of the fish’s head and the negative space around it was distracting from what was happening with the colors and patterns with in the fishes face. So I tried something completely different, the first “abstract fish face” painting. That next weekend at an art fair on the shores of Lake Michigan, I sat unseen behind my white 10×10′ fair tent and listened as group after group discussed this new fish face painting. People where intrigued by it. I noticed that women in particular were far more interested in it than the previous work I’d been doing. They commented on the bright colors and the patterns, and that if you weren’t a fisherman, you might not recognize what the painting was. That first painting sold that first show, so I painted another one. After a few shows I started bringing three or four fish face paintings with me to the shows, and my other styles of fish paintings were going unnoticed and untalked about next to them. I began to realize how rare a contemporary style of painting was in the subject matter of fish, and that people who collect fish art were hungry for it, they were ready for something new.

I’ll never let my father forget, he came to an art show that summer and saw the new “Abstract Fish Face” paintings hanging in my booth. After several moments of looking at them, he came back behind the booth and said, “I don’t know what’s up with your new series of paintings, but I don’t really like them. I think they are a big waste of time and talent.” Well at least he was honest with me, but I felt differently about them. Not only did I think they looked great, they were a lot of fun to paint. It must be added that my Dad is about my biggest fan, and he and my Mom have encouraged my art career since the private art lessons they signed me up for in fourth grade……thanks Mom and Dad!

Below are a couple of the first fish face paintings I painted.

Derek’s work to be featured on 2010 Abel Reels

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:10:09 +0000

Check out the two new DeYoung Signature Series Abel Reels for 2010.

2010 Purple Cheeks Brook and 2010 Yellowstone Cutthroat.

Holiday 2009 Specials

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:33:11 +0000

Buy two 13 x 19″ Giclee Prints, get one 10 x 13″ Giclee Print FREE. Please let us know which print you would like by typing it in in Special Instructions on the checkout page and we will include it in your order.

Free 13 x 19″ Giclee Print when you buy an existing Available Original Oil Painting off of the website. Please let us know which print you would like by typing it in in Special Instructions on the checkout page and we will include it in your order.

Tour the Abel Reel Factory!

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:02:46 +0000

While in So Cal for a couple fly fishing fairs, I had the oppurtunity to tour the Abel factory. Totally amazing how much work goes into each reel! Here’s some pics I took of the process.

Blue Sharks on the Fly!

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:42:11 +0000

On a recent trip down to So Cal, promoting my work and fly fishing products at a couple fly fishing fairs, my brother Nick and I had the opportunity to accompany Capt. Dave Trimble on a Shark fishing trip out of San Diego. Told from the onset that the sharking had been tough as of late, I didn’t expect much action, so I was really excited when Dave jumped up on the bench seat and confirmed that he’d spotted a nice blue shark coming in on our chum slick. After teasing him with a mackerel for 15 minutes, an even larger Blue shark arrived at the boat. After tossing them chunks of bait, both sharks were hot to trot. The plan was for Dave to cast a mackerel with it’s tail cut off out near the shark, and tease him with it. Just when the shark would go for a bite of fish, Dave would yank the teaser from the water, and at that very moment that we needed to cast the fly to the side of the shark’s head. Hearing the splat on the water and seeing the bright flash of color the shark would turn and take a shot at the fly. It took several attempts, but my brother Nick hooked up with the smaller shark, in the 60-70lb range. The fight started out intense, and Nick not being a fly angler, had a heck of a time getting him on the reel. Once he did, the fight smoothed out and Nick battled him to the boat in under 10 minutes.

Once the first shark was released, we settled back into the waiting game….and since we needed to be back to the dock by 12pm, we got an earlier than normal start on our beer consumption. Less than an hour went by, when the larger shark from earlier returned. He meant business this time around.I had him hooked on the second cast, but he shook free because I hooked him right in the middle of his toothy jaw, rather then in the corner of his mouth, which Dave told us was the only place you could stay hooked to a shark. Immediately the blue shark came back to the boat and gave me another shot. This time he turned on the fly just right and I hooked up with him for good. After a 10 min. battle, we landed the 90lb shark.

If you ever end up in the San Diego area, and want to get out of the city and have a fly fishing adventure, I highly recommend calling Capt. Dave Trimble.

www.ontheflyfishingcharter.com/

See all photos of the trip in “Recent Fly Fishing Photography” in the Gallery section of the site.

Spider on a BWO

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:45:07 +0000

Sitting at my computer working away, I glanced out the window and noticed this little spider with a Blue Winged Olive in his mouth. As I photographed him he ran around the window sreen with the mayfly in his mouth. Pretty incredible how strong spiders are!

Salmon flies and Golden Stones

admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:16:53 +0000

Having grown up and learned to fly fish in Michigan, the only stone flies I dealt with were the small black variety. I was never all that excited about them, though I did have success fishing the stone fly nymphs for steel head. Now that I live in Montana, I have a whole new outlook on stone flies. They are fascinating, huge, and very exciting to fish. On my last trip down to Yellowstone Park, I lucked into fishing not only a very large Golden Stone fly hatch, but also the Yellowstone Rivers Salmon fly hatch. Though I did not catch any huge trout, it sure was fun watching that giant fly drift down stream, anticipating a massive snout about to crush it at any second. I did catch some smaller trout though, including a 14″ brown, and a 12″ brookie, that was even brighter then my paintings of them!