John Arthur, who was born in 1951, began drawing and painting as a child in his father’s studio in Peoria, Illinois. His father taught him art basics, but Arthur quickly began learning on his own in what developed into a lifelong career as an artist.
Doing freelance work for the last four decades, Arthur took on all assignments: books, magazines, newsletters, greeting cards, T-shirts — you name it. He has also sketched or painted images of wildlife, fly fishing, and his favorite — fantasy.
He explains how his two passions — art and fly fishing — got joined.
In Illinois, I first fished with a cane pole. Then I experimented with a fly rod in Colorado, where we moved when I was 12. When our family relocated to San Jose in the Bay Area, we lived across the street from Clyde Ritchie, who fished every creek, inlet, and stream from San Jose to Oregon. One of the unsung Lost Coast salmon and steelhead fishermen, he became my mentor and got me to give up for good my spinning rod for the “long stick” and the silent art. Together, we fly fished for shad, steelhead, salmon, stripers, and bonitos. Clyde was president of the San Jose Fly Casters club, and for their newsletter, I started doing cartoons and spot illustrations for articles that Clyde wrote under the pseudonym Shadsby Bulldrop. I loved it nearly as much as our sport.
In the early 1990s, a friend and I began a T-shirt company called The Reel Art Co. For several years, we marketed them across the West, until my friend (and sales manager) had the misguided notion that he could make more money at a real job. Our business folded, and we had to stop writing off our fly-fishing trips.
In addition to his far-reaching art talents, Arthur’s interests in fly fishing are also eclectic. His local fly-fishing waters include Lake Gregory (trout and bass), Lake Arrowhead (smallmouth bass and trout), Lake Silverwood (stripers), Deep Creek (rainbow and brown trout), and the waters of the eastern Sierra, which he considers his backyard. In the last few years, the Truckee has shot to the top of his list. Add Northern California rivers for steelhead and those in Colorado, Idaho, and Montana for trout, and you get the point. He reports, “I am currently putting together my journals from my trips to the eastern Sierra, including my notes and illustrations.”
Today, Arthur teaches art classes at his studio in Crestline, and he and his wife are opening a gallery there called the Mystwood Gallery. It will include fly-fishing art, of course, as well as his fantasy creations.
He concludes: “I’m never more at home with a pen or brush than when I get a chance to illustrate freckles on a salmonid.” You can see Arthur’s work at his Website, www.johnarthur.com.
