Artist Edition River Quiver Featuring Derek DeYoung

His artwork can be seen on cars, boats, coolers, coasters, rugs, wine glasses, fly boxes and now the Artist Edition River Quiver. The art of Derek DeYoung has become iconic in the fly fishing community and beyond. He is always creating something new yet his style consistently delivers intricate patterns, vibrant colors, and striking compositions.

In 2021 we reached out to Derek DeYoung to collaborate on a new Artist Edition River Quiver. We had the vision of a vinyl “skin” that could seamlessly wrap onto our current rod tube design. He agreed to create custom artwork to fit the dimensions required for our rod tubes. And he did not disappoint.

The bold style of Derek DeYoung custom wrapped on over ten feet of aluminum rod tubes mounted to a nearly indestructible AES polymer reel box.

The abstract design he adapted for us was a logical next step in the evolution of his work and a welcomed challenge for him as he has been consistently drawn to create "larger than life" designs.

Derek’s lifelong passion for art (and fishing) led him to complete an illustration degree at Kendall College of Art and Design. Derek has worked on the abstract Abstract Flank Series for nearly a decade now, ever since he graduated and started to experiment with more abstract designs. His love of fly fishing has inspired a massive body of work that has remained faithful to subject matter dominated by the tarpon and the brown trout – which comes as no surprise since him and his wife split their time between The Florida Keys and the mountain streams and rivers of Montana & Michigan.

EARLY YEARS

Learning to draw and paint with oils at a young age along with his fine arts training has undoubtedly served his ability to develop his unique style as a contemporary artist. He whimsically re-masters and references the likes of Van Gogh, Dali, Picasso, Kandinsky, and plays between realism, surrealism and free flow illustration. While other times he completely abandons figures and lets the nature-inspired textures and patterns become the central theme.

Derek DeYoung Paintings: Downtown Brown, Dripping Brown Trout, and Cubist Brown Trout

MANY EVOLUTIONS

The “Flank” concept for the skins started back around 2004, when DeYoung started to venture farther into abstraction. In Abstract Fish Faces he zooms in on the single fish eye and cheek. In the Abstract Flank Series DeYoung completely removes the fins and the eyes as he zooms in on the side body patterns.

Derek DeYoung Abstract Fish Faces Series: "Chubby"

In other works he has extended his designs across 4 side-by-side panels for the Four in One Series. He has spawned fish on top of fish for the Trout Confetti Series. He has painted 3D Fish / Mounts. He has also done a number of other series including Wildlife and Riverscape "plein air" paintings, a challenge all of its own.

Derek DeYoung Painting: "Petosky" from 4-in-1 Series

By revisiting these same subject matters year after year he has not only continued to perfect his designs and interpretations, he has brought new perspective and new energy that further develops his style. Over the years DeYoung has also found ways to apply and adapt his art to many new surfaces.

Derek DeYoung Art on Vinyl Boat Wrap, Wine Glasses and Fly Tackle Box

Derek has partnered with other premier fly fishing companies and, with the help and support from his wife Janell, he has a website where fans can purchase custom prints & all kinds of merchandise featuring his art.

Derek DeYoung Collaboration with Abel Reels, custom apparel and painted acoustic guitar

When we reached out to Derek he was already creating custom vinyl wraps for boats, cars, and oars using his "Flank" design concept. So our "skin" idea was an easy adaption. His boat wraps were designed with a digitally extended design created from an oil painting. But to fit the extreme ratio required for our River Quiver tube wraps he had to push the design farther than anything he had done before. This time extending the work 10x longer than before, proving again that the limit does not exist.