“People often ask me if I catch the fish that I paint. The answer is yes, but I don’t paint all the fish that I catch, Thank God! If that were true, I would probably have given up fly fishing years ago.”
Jill Field-Duerr’s paintings have progressed over the last decade from the naturalistic representation of trout to more far-ranging subjects of landscapes. Her depictions of trout have taken on a more heightened form of realism, sometimes moving into the realm of the fanciful. In spite of comparisons to American masters such as Whistler, Moran, Homer, and influences by the French masters, her work is not illustration but Art in its highest capacity. Jill has said realism has never been the goal; the point of the painting is “to express the perception of the natural world as humankind’s sublime experience of being in nature.“Whatever the subject matter, however realistic or fanciful the representation may be, Jill’s imagery is rich, genuine and languid in the classical pastiche. Flawless in her technique which she says will “…never be surmounted – I only strive to achieve what I see.”
Jill was born in San Diego, California and now resides in Pasadena, California. A painter and fisherman since childhood, Jill grew up fishing with her family in the Eastern Sierras and the Oregon coast. She has studied art and has owned and operated a private art school in Pasadena for the past 17 years. Jill has been awarded numerous public and private commissions; she donates her time to underprivileged youth art programs and Jill’s artwork graces private homes and commercial properties throughout the US and Europe.
Jill consistently donates to fly-fishing organizations and foundations that participate in the preservation and conservation of land and fisheries that support the great tradition of flyfishing.