No, I'm Not Dead...yet

  Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
    Yes, I am back after taking over a month off from blogging.  For those that have faithfully followed this blog for years and for those just discovering me, I send you my apologies.  Sometimes life just throws a lot at you all at once and you need to prioritize what is important.  As you can imagine, blogging is one of those commitments that comes in last in a long list of priorities.
    Despite my absence from the blog, I have not remained idle not have I stopped painting.  In fact A lot of things have happened over the last month that are really quite exciting.  I wont go into all the boring things that have been happening with my day job but I will say that the next twelve months are going to be a very exciting time for me.
    On the home front, I spent some quality time with the family on a great camping trip to the beach.  Collecting shark teeth and roasting smores over a campfire was just the remedy for a stress filled few weeks at work.  The camping trip came right after a very painful biking crash that took the better part of two weeks to recover from.  Luckily nothing was broken but I was missing a lot of skin and received a few deep boon bruises that have slowed me down a bit.

    After that, my brother-inlaw and a buddy of mine took a backpacking trip up to do a little trout fishing in

the hills of South Carolina and Georgia.  With the scabs of the bike accident still healing, the lugging of a forty pound pack wasn't the best thing to do but once we got to fishing it all just kind of melted away.
    For those that enjoy packing all you need in a pack that can fit on your back, setting off into the wild, and loosing all cell phone coverage, you know just how great the adventure can be.  In the end, you hurt, you stink, and it may take a good ten minutes to scrub the dirt off but you always leave with a smile on your face.  I caught more trout in two days than I could keep track of and for the first time in over two years I didn't care about taking pictures.  It was a bit freeing to not have to think about taking pictures of my catches but when I got home I began to wish I would have at least taken a few shots of the beautiful trout I had hooked.

    I did a lot more stuff (including fishing) over the past few weeks but I am not going to go into it and bore you all with the details more than I already have.  From here on its all looking forward.
  Yesterday I picked up my paints for the first time in quite a while to paint a few fins.  My wife love the look of bluegills and frankly I enjoy painting them.  Unfortunately for her, the bream never stay in our house for very long.  The past three bluegill paintings I have done have been quickly snatched up by eager customers and every time my wife lets out a deep groan and pout followed quickly after by the statement, 'Awe shoot, I loved that one.'.

    If you follow my facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/hexfishing then you have no doubt already seen this work.  To my surprise I received four messages inquiring about this piece within hours of posting it.  As of right now it has not sold but the amount of interest shows me just how many people love the little bluegills as much as I do.  You might not want to brag to your buddies about the mess of bluegills you caught the other day but for a simple fun afternoon there is not much better than hooking a school of these aggressive bream on a fly rod.
Two Bluegills On Blue
overall measurements (including wash) 11inx14in.
For Sale

  And since this is a blog that has a long history of trout photos, here is a rainbow I took a photo of the other day at our new Cabelas trout tank that just recently opened right down the street.  I don't know how much I will actually buy there (I still love local small businesses) but the trout and bass tanks are a pretty cool thing to look at.