Striped Bass: Illustrations & Wildlife Art

Shared in this post are what I find to be a healthy sampling of the most admirable and accurately-depicted Saxatilis illustrations and works of art that I have chanced upon in my years of having lived immersed within the salty subject of everything Striped Bass.  Selected are thirty (keeper) pieces created with mediums of ink, pencil, oil, acrylic, watercolor, or digital pixel.  While there are seemingly countless examples of this celebrated fish found throughout various realms of the art world, whether professionally-commissioned or humbly-sketched and shared on the internet, I find it striking that no two artists seem to express this same fish in the same manner.  That is, each artist has a different eye or physical capability for what he or she mimics and envisions.  Some aspect (whether coloring, curves, overall proportion, anatomical accuracy, body and fin shaping, attitude, or state of motion) of a finished product is always different from extant pieces of work, and moreover distinguishes what I as an observer and fisherman believes to be a convincing representation of the East coast's most popular gamefish.  With that, some really do stand-out against the "school."  I suppose it's just enough to share a few that should merit any Striper enthusiast's artful appreciation, and in this case especially, exhibit the true-to-life and apropos valediction commonly used of an angler - tight lines. 

Amadeo Bachar
https://studio-abachar.myshopify.com/

Arthur Shilstone - "The Striped Bass"

Flick Ford
http://www.flickford.com/

Flick Ford

Flick Ford - "Mature Striped Bass"

Guy Harvey

Guy Harvey - "Striped Bass Collage"

Jim Roszel

Jim Roszel

Joe Higgins - Gyotaku (ink & paper) fish prints.
"Joe's Fresh Fish Prints"  https://www.fishedimpressions.com/ 

Mark Susinno - "Mopping Up" (2004)

Mike Savlen - "Striper Rise" (giclee on stretched-canvas)
http://www.savlenstudios.com/

Nick Mayer
https://www.nickmayerart.com/

Nick Mayer

Samuel Kilbourne (1858)

H.L. Todd (1884).  This illustration is used for the logo of the 154-yr-old Cuttyhunk Fishing Club in Massachusetts.

Savio Mizzi - "On The Fly"

Stanley Meltzoff - "Eighth Avenue, Asbury" (July 1966) oil on panel
http://silverfishpress.com/

Stanley Meltzoff - "Barnagat Inlet, North Jetty" (June 1966) oil on mounted canvas

Unknown

Unknown (appeared in On The Water magazine, 2017)

Jacqueline Stella
https://jacquelinestella.com/

Unknown

Unknown (appeared in Utah Fishing Guidebook 2018, page 58)

Unknown

James Prosek
https://www.troutsite.com/index.html

David Danforth
https://www.relogear.com/art

David Riina - "Realistic Striped Bass" (watercolor)
https://davidriina.bigcartel.com/

Glen Hacker - "Striped Bass" (oil on canvas - 2015)

Captain Stephen Ferrell
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CaptStephenFerrell

Rockfish à la Norman Rockwell

A Photoshop edit made of Rockwell's "Freedom From Want" (1943) in which a Striper was made the main course. Although the serving platter edit was not my work, I added four other elements to give it a slightly (hardly noticeable due to low resolution) more surfcaster edge. While this particular fall run has not liberated my own feelings of want with respect to beaching migrating bass, the Thanksgiving Day holiday casts upon us a much greater appreciative appeal - friends & family - the very unmoving rocks of our existence.  To surfcast is to perhaps have washed-away in the briny prescription of a saltwater tide the mind's most minor misgivings, even those as inconsequential as bemoaning the spirited absence of one's favorite gamefish, as the keepers and personal bests are always patiently waiting to your back and over your trying shoulders, on dry land, at home. Give thanks to them.  Never stop fighting for them.  But also give thanks to Sax. I fear she may need the help of our good fight too..