Fly Fishing Art: Bob White Interview

Anyone who knows Bob White describes him as self-effacing, intelligent, and highly talented, both as a painter and a fishing guide. Chris Niskanen interviewed him for the St. Paul [Minnesota] Pioneer Press and gets him to speak about how he got into fishing and painting and what motivates him to sit down with brush and canvas. “The sporting artists today are generally selling to collectors or enthusiasts. It feels different to me, although I see a lot of people doing a retro thing today. Modern painters are doing the 1950s sporting art. It’s cabin art. It’s cool. But the great sporting artists of the past century did art that told a story.”
By the way, White did all of the illustrations for the new edition of Tom Rosenbauer’s Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide (The Lyons Press, January 2007, 288 pages), which we consider an essential part of any good fly fishing library. White’s illustrations are phenomenal — some of the best illustrations of fly fishing techniques we’ve ever seen. Bob’s art, which has graced the pages of MidCurrent, can be seen on his Web site at www.whitefishstudio.com.