Angling Artist: Jay Talbot
“The Dude abides” is an all-time quote from the 1998 cult classic film, The Big Lebowski, starring Jeff Bridges as The Dude––a goofy, nonchalant hippie who, even in the face of crisis, only cares to sit back, chill, and go bowling. The famous quote loosely translates to “just relax and enjoy life’s simple pleasures”, an ideology most fishermen can get behind. Through his illustrations of fish, flies, and doodles of characters like The Dude poling around salt marshes, Jay Talbot effectively captures the lax “toes in the water, tush in the sand” vibe that is shared by anglers, boaters, and bowlers alike.
In 2014, Talbot was working toward graduating from the University of South Carolina, where he decided to major in religious studies after flunking accounting in business school. That same year, during his final undergraduate semester, he began a minor in art studio to acquire enough credits to graduate. Little did he know that the projects he completed in his advanced drawing courses during those few months would shape his career as an artist.
During that final semester at USC, Talbot began posting his illustrations and projects on Instagram. Shortly after graduating, he landed a job at a mortgage company, but it didn’t last. Talbot found himself at a desk daydreaming of fishing and the outdoors, so he continued sharing his sketches and drawings on social media, where he was already building a strong following. “Within six months,” Talbot said, “I was answering more calls about fish art than mortgages.” That’s when he decided to make the leap to go full time as an artist. He made his first sale on Etsy and, before long, companies were buying his drawings to use on t-shirts and hats.
For Talbot, art and illustrating were not just a means to an end for college credits. His mother was an art teacher, and he often found himself working as her pro bono assistant at home. His grandfather had a special touch with the brush, too. Whenever Talbot visited, he wound up drawing and painting alongside Grandpa, who was hard at work on large-scale paintings of animals (like horses and dogs) to be entered into the annual state fair art competition. Because of their sheer size, Talbot says, his grandfather placed heavy emphasis on composition and lighting, which earned him several first-place prizes. Today, those two elements are profoundly evident in Talbot’s renditions of oysters, redfish tails, tarpon scales, and boats, but there remains an element of simplicity even in his most detailed creations.
Talbot’s art ranges from large portraits of saltwater flies and fish to quirky, comic-like cartoons that are both lighthearted and humorous––kind of like the Far Side, but for anglers. He also leans into more complex designs using multi-colored micron pens, which have fine points so he can acutely detail his subjects with shadows and outlines to add dimension. With those same micron pens, he can even capture the iridescent colors and metallic shine of sunlight reflecting off the hulking head of a silver king. And while a good chunk of Talbot’s artwork is hand-drawn, some of it is digitally produced using Procreate, a graphics editing app with tools to sketch, paint, and even animate illustrations.
Taking a quick scroll through Talbot’s Instagram or Etsy pages, it’s obvious that he has a passion for light tackle and fly fishing in the skinny, shallow, backwaters of South Carolina, where red drum, tarpon, and speckled trout thrive. But the landlocked city of Columbia, where Talbot now resides, is a long way from those saltwater environs. Lucky for him, the nearby Lake Murray boasts a robust population of striped bass, which were introduced between the late 1950s and early 60s. There, Talbot uses light spinning tackle to cast topwater plugs to stripers that typically measure between 24 and 30 inches long. He has yet to catch a striper from the salt, but it’s high on his ever-growing to-do list. A friend of his who lives on Nantucket has relayed some jaw-dropping photos and video footage of striped bass feeding frenzies, so a trip to the Northeast is also in order in the near future.
Between the trips to Lake Murray and coastal South Carolina, Talbot plans to continue expanding his portfolio while building up his e-commerce business. Recently, he began offering custom boat line drawings for people to put on private apparel, whether for an offshore tournament team, a charter business, or just a man who loves his boat. But the dream, as Talbot describes it, is for his prints to fly off shelves so he can continue to develop creative artwork for his own hats, t-shirts, and decals.
Over the past 10 years, Talbot has grown Jayboart into a successful business, despite his own admission of figuring it out as he went along. As it turns out, flunking that accounting class in business school put him on the path to success without the need for a business degree. His easygoing attitude and ability to keep a cool head through the uncertainties of self-employment and entrepreneurship are reflected in his artwork, which further enhances his uniquely chill style. Jay Talbot is a humble, self-made, fishy dude—and the dude abides.
Follow Jay Talbot on IG @jayboart
Source: https://onthewater.com/angling-artist-jay-talbot
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