Painting Through Prosek: Atlantic Salmon

On December 9, 2012, I painted the Arctic Char. It was my first painting since college. It was the first painting in the "Painting Through Prosek" series. At the time, I thought I might be able to paint every fish in the book. That didn't happen. That being said, I think I painted 31 different fish from the book Trout: An Illustrated History by James Prosek. I also painted a speckled trout, a couple brookies and brown trout, two red drum tails, and a quail.

This project ended with the Atlantic Salmon. It is such a powerful and beautiful fish. These amazing sea-run fish, return to home waters to spawn. Some make the trip more than once. Most do not.

Salmon have been an important species to may people for many reasons. Some salmon runs have long since disappeared from interruption of their path by dams. This is just as true for the Atlantic Salmon as it is for their West Coast cousins.

I chose to go outside my comfort zone and paint something other than the body colors. I drew some of the structure of Prosek's fish in pencil to help guide my brush. I think this was a great way to end this project. 

I'm not sure what comes next. I have Prosek's book, Trout of the World and Ocean Fishes. But I was thinking of something else.

This July, we are moving back to Southeast Minnesota for the year. I'll be at the edge of the Driftless Area. I might try to find representative flora and fauna and paint those in a Driftless series. Just a thought, for now.