As a life-long fisherman and very nearly 30 years as a professional wood-worker, it was only a matter of time before the two came together. Ian May explains...
Whilst working in central London I rarely missed an opportunity to pop into Farlow’s on Pall Mall. The carved and painted wood trophy fish that were displayed high up on the walls of the shop had an almost hypnotic hold on me. Huge salmon from the legendary Norwegian and Scottish salmon rivers.. 30, 40 & 50lb+ fish, beautifully carved with simple yet exquisite detail, painted in oils, using muted, earthy colours that have developed the lovely warm patina that comes only with age... things of enchanting beauty. I had to learn more about them.
Research was started....I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of Simon and Edwina Brett’s, catalogue An Exhibition of Carved Wood Fish Models 1988. Which is a mine of information on the subject. I soon discovered one of the main producers of this type of fish carving were John Tully and Dhuie Russell, the husband and wife team based at Gordon Castle in Fochabers, Scotland. John carved and Dhuie decorated the fish (Her father was John Bucknell Russell, the celebrated fish and wildlife artist of the Victorian era). During the late Eighteen to early Nineteen hundreds, they produced a large number carved and painted fish for the historic houses of P. D. Malloch and Hardy Bros. as well as the London tackle dealers Holbrow and Co. and C. Farlow & Co. amongst others. These were sold worldwide as trophies to their respective clients to commemorate their outstanding captures of Salmon, Brown trout and Sea trout.
(above) The body components with profile tracing showing the tail and fins applied separately
It was once said to me that fish-carving was simplicity itself.... ‘Just get a block of wood and chop off all the bits that don’t look like a fish’. Now, I’m a big fan of ‘simple’ but I have to admit that it has been the cause some head scratching and provided some interesting challenges. What wood do I use? Do I aim for a perfect model likeness or adopt a Tully/Russell style approach, where the important detail is captured with a skilful subtlety, that blends full size replication with traditional folk art? Do I carve in the tail and fins from within the single block or carve them separately and joint them in? Hand or power tools? Paint....oils or acrylics? paint application....brush or air-brush? Goodness me! Who mentioned simple?
(above) Hand working the draw knife, shaping body curves and profiles....best bit of the job!
I wanted to develop a style that was sympathetic to the ‘Old Masters’ but reflected my ‘waste no time’ approach, developed over many years as a full time woodworker. Here’s is how it has panned out. Timber choice:- well dried English Lime wood ( Tilia x europaea) Common Lime; Fine grained to hold lots of detail, excellent stability and readily available in large section sizes, (ready for all those 30lb+ Salmon!), why not indeed, being the timber of choice for the carving collosus of the middle ages, Grinling Gibbons, Tilman Reimensneider, Veit Stoss, amongst others... more than good enough for me. Machined initially with planer and bandsaw, hand shaped and profiled with draw knife and various sweeps of gouge. Fine and final detail, worked carefully in with hand knife, rotary burr, acute angled vee-tool. A very pleasing blend of hand and machine (hand-working the curves with the draw knives and gouges can only be described as pure heaven), thus helping to keep the initial concept of traditional/modern ideals in place.
(above) The body shaped, eye positioned, mouth formed and dorsal fin ‘jointed-in’
The traditional fish were generally carved as a half-section, I opted for high relief to allow the fish to sit a little further away from the hardwood backing board, giving a more sculptured feel and which accommodates the positioning of the pair of pelvic fins. Tail and fins are added separately, which allows the grain to be orientated so that it runs in the same direction as the rays of the finished fin. This allows for greater detailing and preventing any potential weak spots due to the presence of short grain. Scales are burned-in using a fine tipped pyrography pen on the species of fish that have scales large enough to require being individually picked out (salmon, grayling and most coarse fish) or carved in with a very small round diamond rotary burr, in the case of all the trout species. Either method has the effect of accentuating the scale pattern and when painted and varnished, gives a pleasingly real effect that is not too model like.
(above) Angled perspective showing high relief, shaped tail & fins and carved-in scale detail
The Painting of the early fish replicas was nearly always carried out with oil based paints, which gave the originals their wonderful muted, understated look. A combination of original oil paints lovely blending characteristics coupled with a century of age enhanced patination provided an effect that would be difficult to recreate. So a different approach was decided upon, an approach that came about as a result of time spent with my dear friend, Liz Hairs, who (quite by chance!) happens to be a most talented carver and painter of decoy wildfowl and birds. We worked on creating a series of colour-washes, built up using artist grade acrylic paints with the addition of compatible finish mediums to provide a blend something akin to the look of a ‘fresh from the water’ fish. Ageing finishes were decided against, preferring to let time be the ultimate provider of the aged look. Modern acrylic paints and varnishes tend not to age (yellow) in the same way as traditional oil based finishes, when exposed to the ultra violet light present in daylight. That said, some of the fish completed over the years, do appear to be ‘maturing’ quite nicely.
(above) 17 colour paint pallet with primer, finish mediums and brushes
So with the preparation of a suitable backing board, which has keyhole slots on the back for wall hanging, and the relevant catch details painted on, we have a modern day interpretation on the theme. I would rather like to think that in years to come, someone might just see one hanging on a wall somewhere and decide, quite irrationally, ’Now that’s quite nice.... I’d like to find out a bit more about it’.
(above) Mounted on the polished Cherry board with painted catch details
Ian May is an AAPGAI Master Instructor based in Hampshire, teaching both single and
double handed disciplines for salmon, trout & grayling.... he can also be commissioned