Ray Bergman Collection - Watercolor

After a rather long week of work I settled down yesterday to paint a few flies... Okay - actually 24 flies.  Hearkening back to the days of posting a a fly a day for the entire year in 2010, I set to work sketching out flies with the idea of  making this piece similar to the presentation flies made so famous by Ray Bergman.

That's right - thee Ray Bergman - author of the timeless trout anglers bible simply titled TROUT.
Taking the suggestion brought up by Mark - author and sportsman of some of the best brook trout fishing on the net - Small Stream Reflections - I decided to pick out some Ray's flies for this piece.
Searching the net and with a little help from Mark I keyed up on HatchesMag and Don Bastian masterfully tied flies.
Painted on Acrid Free Bristol paper with bright watercolors and inked out with an archival pen, I wanted to give this collection a more artistic feel instead of trying to duplicate in every detail the image of the original fly.  I wanted to focus on the piece as a whole so I will save you the time reading through each fly.  Rest assured though, I do have a master list of every fly I used as a model for this piece.  Maybe the discerning Ray Bergman fan can name a few?

  I have begun to love this style of painting and although it may seem a bit haphazard and frantic, the process is actually a delicate balancing act of deciding when to add and when to let it be.

"The Bergman Collection"

Ink and Watercolor on Bristol

9in  X 11in

For Sale