While growing up in Southern California, John Williams enjoyed camping with his family in and around Sequoia National Park. He began to fish when he was 12, primarily on a small lake near Whittier, where he caught planted rainbows.
Williams attended Whittier High School, and after graduating in 1965, he enrolled in Rio Hondo Community College, where he met his future wife. He then matriculated at Long Beach State University, majoring in art, an avocation destined to become his life’s passion.
Williams first specialized in ceramic arts. He then began to paint in watercolors, a medium that, in his words, “is quite fluid and easily transportable to paint on location.” This dimension complemented his abiding love of the outdoors and, later, fly fishing.
After graduating from college, Williams worked for the Southern California Gas Company. When an opening became available in 1976 at the Ingram Paper Company in the city of Commerce, he applied and got the job. He worked at the company for 25 years, retiring in 2007.
His first fly-fishing experience was at the Hot Creek Ranch near Mammoth Lakes, where a friend took him. Despite losing many flies, he landed seven fish the first day and nine the next — not too shabby for Hot Creek. He got hooked on the sport and also on tying his own flies “to save money.” Thousands of dollars later, he came to realize the error of this calculation.
He was soon avidly pursuing both fly fishing and tying flies. Painting the places where he fished proved to be equally rewarding.
Early in his fly-fishing career, Williams took a horse-packing trip to the high country of the Ansel Adams Wilderness above the June Lake Loop in the eastern Sierra. He subsequently became a fishing guide, principally for the waters in this wilderness area.
The artistry expressed in flies motivated Williams not only to tie his own, but to develop new patterns using different materials. He taught others how to tie and wrote a monthly article with photos and instructions about his original patterns for the newsletter of the Fly Fishers Club of Orange County.
A longtime member of this club, Williams was first elected its president in 1996. Across 29 years, he has served four times in this capacity. He reports: “The Fly Fishers Club of Orange County enriched my life immensely by introducing me to wonderful people who have shared with me a great appreciation for the sport and their enduring camaraderie.”
John’s love of fly fishing and the wilderness has taken him, often joined by his fishing cronies, to the waters of the Arctic, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and across the United States. “All the amazing memories are carried in my head, and many are reflected in my paintings. My art is a chance for me to remember the great times and beauty of the places I have fished.”
He continues: “With color, texture, value, intensity, shadow, and light filling my eyes with visual joy, I need only to enter nature to find inspiration. With excursions into nature’s studio, I am a spectator. Through art, I become a creator and fully appreciate what nature has given me.”
