ARTISTRY AND ADVENTURE
For the 2024 Fly Fishing Film Tour we are thrilled to be showcasing the work of avid fly angler, adventurer and acrylic artist Piper Nunn who’s original canvas ‘Four Trout Species’ has been adapted with Piper’s support for the coming tour.
As an avid fly angler, adventurer and acrylic artist Piper Nunn has been featured as F3T’s artist – so incredibly fitting as she has a love for the great outdoors, in particular rivers and streams where wild fish populations are in abundance. Her artwork comes from creativity drawn by connection, where she believes it’s a powerful tool putting together the outdoor world with people in a bid to inspire and protect.
Born in Colorado, Piper’s love for the great outdoors derived from a young age where she would go camping and hiking in the mountains. Her love for fly fishing came later in life, and thanks the scenery of Colorado for her passion and art inspiration. She began painting 6 years ago, but the intensity to be more serious about it started 4 years ago. Her journey well and truly began 3 years ago when Piper decided to turn her love of painting into a business, and she hasn’t look back since. Fly fishing inspires Piper because of how it allows her to connect with rivers and the areas that surround them, where can fully immerse herself in everything around her from the water’s edge to the trees in the distance. And so why does she love painting fish?
“The biggest change in my art was going from nature and landscape paintings to fish focused art,” she says.
“I began to feel motivated and inspired to not only conserve fish populations and ecosystems, but to use my art as a way to connect others to nature and inspire them to protect our resources,” she reveals.
It allows her to focus on the small details. She has said previously that when she catches a fish, she takes into consideration all the minute details and beautiful intricacies of the animal, and painting gives her an opportunity to spend more time studying those details and bringing them to life on a canvas. Believe it or not, Piper also has a degree in fisheries biology which she began pursuing when she first started painting – this proved a brilliant connection between the two, because as she learned about the biology of fish, she began realising all the conservation issues in the fisheries world, which in turn provided her with more passion in her artwork.
“I think that my degree and the level of knowledge that I have about fish helped me to fine tune the accuracy and realism of my art, however the realistic aspect of my art also came with lots of practice and repetition.”
Piper primarily paints with acrylic paint on reclaimed pine beetle kill wood and sometimes works with gouache, saying she loves painting on wood due to its nature, character and sustainability – the fact it’s all natural is the biggest tie into her reasonings for using the material.
“The biggest change in my art was going from nature and landscape paintings to fish focused art,” she says.”
“This shift happened after discovering my love for fly fishing and resulted in the launch of my art business…I am most proud of the detail that I put into each piece.” Piper’s current pieces, as well as a request for commissions, is available through her website at pipernunn.art and you can also check her out on Instagram @piper_nunn.
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