Angling Art Paintings of Catskills Rivers by Galen Mercer
A Luminous Run (Oil on canvas, 22″ X 28″): Brilliant spring sunshine washes over a transparent, shelving riffle on the Upper Beaverkill.
All works by Galen Mercer
By: Phil Monahan
Artist Galen Mercer lives along the Battenkill in West Arlington, Vermont. Canadian by birth, he’s the grandson of two painters and the son of another, so it’s kind of in his blood. He’s also a fanatical fly fisher. He normally does a fair amount of traveling and fishing, but the pandemic has kept him close to home this year. He made the most of this time, producing some really lovely paintings of the rivers of his beloved Catskills. As he put it, “I have been in the studio with my head down much of the summer and now have a passel of new work to show.”
Delaware River Flat, April (Oil on canvas, 20″ X 25″): The vernal light and unpredictable skies of April are as dramatic as they are promising.
High-Summer Evening, Delaware River (Oil on canvas, 23″ X 29″): A lone angler scouts a flat at summer’s best time of day.
A Trout Brook In Spring (Oil on canvas, 27″ X 36″): A tributary of the upper Beaverkill–full, abundant and bearing all the potential of spring.
Soft Corner On The Delaware (Oil on canvas, 24″ X 32″): A gentle backwater amplifies the mountains’ rush to green upon a soft day in May.
This article was first published in Orvis Magazine.