#timborski

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - fishing artist

Tim’s work is is perfect for display on metal accouterments of the sport of fishing such as these superb fly reals or liquor flasks. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - fishing artist

I met Tim Borski nearly 30-years ago when I was visiting the Keys. He had just moved to the Keys and was keeping himself employed as a fly tier and burgeoning artist. Tim’s flies by-the-way are also a show pieces of his creative mind and his experience on the water. The next several posts will be highlighting some of his artwork.

Sunset Bone - by Tim Borski

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - Fishing Artist/Wildlife Artist

Here is an example of Tim going outside fishing. Tim in recent years has taken an interest in other local fauna of the Florida Keys to include snakes and birds. This bird is Rod&Barrel’s very own spirit animal and logo silhouette, the Swallow-Tailed Kite that visits theFlorida Keys and south Florida in the spring and stays through the summer. Here too, Tim sticks to his signature style of getting a close up of the subject so much so that he cuts of part of the tail and the wing. The background is a unique one for Tim’s work since it involves floral and in quite of bit of detail and so divorcing his usual flat and colorful backgrounds that he uses for his fish subjects.

This ends the Tim Borski Art series critique by yours truly

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - Fishing Art 

These two Borski’s are classic Borski with anatomically correct fish in terms of size and shape but Tim’s artistic genius shows in his choice of colors and how he chooses to represent details like scales, bone structure and coloring of a fish. Notice the zig-zag lines on the tarpon representing scales or the same zig-zag line on the marlins back to represent the reflection of light.  You’ll see again Tim prefers profiles of his subjects and the open mouth and red background is signature Borski. Make note too that Tim is brave enough in is renditions not too show the whole fish as here he chooses not include the whole bill of the the marlin or the pectoral fin of the tarpon allowing the viewers imagination to complete the fish - something most fishing artists would never do. I get the feeling of electricity and electric lighting when I contemplate his work. His choice of backgrounds in these two examples of his work tell a tale of movement. Whereas the marlin featured on the top exudes a hard charging energy of the marlin about to attack it’s prey the tarpon has a softer feeling of gliding movement as a real tarpon coming up to the surface for air as they are so prone to do on calm days.

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - Fishing Art

Tim pushes the color palate when highlighting a fishes features and scales. While Tim takes great license with color and lighting I do appreciate his attention to portraying the fish anatomically correct and proportional to the real thing. Most of Tim’s fish portrayals are two dimensional showing just a side view. Rarely a top view or frontal or a fish in a turning motion. There is almost a cartoon feel to his work but I hate to use that description since his work goes far beyond a simple cartoon. 

[rodandbarrel]

Tim Borski - Fishing Artist

Tim’s fishing art is about as unconventional as you will ever see. His work shows little interest in reality when it comes to background colors. Red is a favorite of his and its is used in an energetic if not electric backdrop that projects force and power. Notice to that most of his fish renditions portray the fish with an open mouth as if it is about to grab a lure or bait. Many of his renditions only show half the fish as if it just bolted into view. 

[rodandbarrel]

Modern Day Bonefish Flies

If you compare yesterday’s post on old style bonefish flies you’ll see a marked difference in how longer, bigger, leggier, shrimpier and crabbier today's patterns are. Even the bottom pattern is basically a Crazy Charlie now enhanced with shrimp eyes, rubber legs and banding on the wing made with a Sharpie pen. I credit fly tier and artist Tim Borski in part in coming up with longer and banded patterns that resembled mantis shrimp and blennies, both a favored forage of bonefish. I will admit the leggy patterns have a great effect on getting bonefish to notice and eat a fly. Something about all the leggy movement rubber legged flies provide apparently is very enticing. Notice too every pattern displayed has some form of weight in the use of bead chain or lead and metal barbel eyes. What these patterns should tell us is that bonefish will eat anything that looks like a critter of the flats and being weighted does the drop-and-hop when retrieved the bonefish seem to love.