Meet Derek DeYoung | DeYoung Studio

We had the good fortune of connecting with Derek DeYoung and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Derek, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I have dreamt of being an artist since I was a little kid and I wanted to build a life of freedom where I could travel and be inspired. When I first got into the fly fishing world, my goal was to bring something new to the table. I have no illusions that I am the best painter out there, but I think I am one of the more creative artists. I want to bring you something fresh and new every time. That was a challenge in the beginning of my career, because fresh and new is not always welcome. I had people tell me to take a hike and that I will never be embraced by the fly fishing world. This caused me to work harder. Now, bright and fresh is the norm in the fly fishing industry. I am proud to have been part of that movement.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
With my fish art, I try to find a whole new angle to it. Any artist that isn’t looking at new challenges and how to broaden their skill set isn’t growing. The goal here for me is to be an old man who has experienced many interesting things in life through his passion for painting. These new challenges don’t always translate into what I might sell more of per se. But to develop my own style in painting fish and riverscapes is important. It is so inspiring to me….chasing trout in some of the northern Rockies most beautiful rivers and lakes, I often set the rod down, and consider the scene in front of me, not in how to best fish it, but how to best paint it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I can’t help but be most inspired by our own backyard. I split time between Northern Michigan, the Florida Keys and Montana. I love spending early mornings out on the flats, in the Florida Keys. The things you see out there are incredible, and yes, inspiring too. The small streams and creeks of Montana also own a big piece of my heart. Watching a prolific mayfly hatch, with the trout and swallows picking them off one by one, that is about as good as it gets.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I don’t have one particular person, I definitely admire many of my peers. The fish art genre has expanded and exploded in the last five years! There are so many talented and passionate artists pursuing fish as their subject, it makes this field that much more engaging and fulfilling, and for me, becoming complacent is not a problem, because with such a talented bunch of artists in this genre, its important for me to keep pushing hard to continue capturing peoples imaginations and attentions. The artists in my opinion, who are really bringing it (I mean working hard to bring something new to the genre), are the ones that I think are worth following. They will be the face of fly-fishing in the future.

Website: http://www.derekdeyoung.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derek.deyoung/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deyoung.studio