Artist’s Statement
The choreography of fly fishing has always mesmerized me . . . it’s thrilling to watch. The arc of the casting takes my breath away. Somehow, my mind sees it in slow motion.
Although I don’t fish, I frequently end up at beautiful fishing spots — places such as Rainy Bridge on the Teton River, Baum Lake on Hat Creek, and Silver Creek, Idaho. And closer to home, Eagle Lake, Lake Almanor, Silver Lake, Bucks Lake, Indian Creek, and Antelope Lake. We are sometimes on the bank, but often in our canoe. My occasional-fly-fisher husband, Michael, and I sometimes plan camping trips to new places we discover in Northwest Fly Fishing magazine, for instance, on Birch Creek in southern Idaho last year, where I set up my gouaches by our little Casita travel trailer and painted while he fished. Whenever he catches one, he shows me the beauty of the fish before he puts it back.
Other influences in my outdoor life are friends Mike Kossow and John Shower, two of the most knowledgeable and talented fly fishers I know. Through them, I experience the beauty of the fish . . . in stories or photographs.
I spent many years as a freelance designer and illustrator, but wildland landscapes have been the focus of my painting for the last three decades. I mostly paint on-site, although an occasional photo is too good to pass up.
Oil, gouache, pencil, and pastel are my mediums of choice. I am working on several series: “100 Views of Taylorsville,” but also “Sierra Valley,” “Western Wildlands,” “Slovenia,” “Mavis’s Carousel,” and “Bequia, West Indies.” I completed a two-week residency as the 2014 Artist in the Lookout in the Plumas National Forest. This was a wild ride on top of the mountain in a cozy glass house and allowed nonstop painting. In 2015, I completed eight large oil paintings to benefit the Feather River Land Trust’s purchase of the Olsen Barn property in Chester.
I have studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the California College of the Arts, in Oakland, California State University, Chico (printmaking), Feather River College, and in several workshops with Gregory Kondos, Ron Arthaud, Dianne Lipscomb, Phyllis Shafer, and Sidne Teske.
I currently show my work at Main Street Artists Gallery, in Quincy, Capitol Arts Gallery, in Quincy, the Red House Gallery, in Graeagle, and the Oasis Gallery, in Bequia, West Indies. More images are available on my Website, www.sallyyost.com. My Taylorsville studio is open by appointment, and I am happy to have you stop by.
— Sally Yost
