Angling Artist: Matt Doyle

Fishing is a bonding exercise—it gets us outdoors and forges connections with our loved ones and the environment. Matt Doyle felt that connection developing as early as age 10, when he joined his father and grandfather on bass-fishing trips in the rivers and ponds of south-central Pennsylvania. The surging headshakes of smallmouth bass were enough to keep him returning to the water’s edge for years to come and, eventually, it led him to a career in fine art.
Doyle has been drawing since he was old enough to pick up a pencil. His early illustrations were mainly sketches of his favorite comic-book characters and superheroes, but that began to change as his passion for the outdoors, shared by his father and grandfather, continued to develop. Fishing and hunting were engrained in their lifestyle, so Doyle’s early exposure to the woods and water drastically influenced his work on paper. He frequently accompanied them on fishing trips to the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River—a 123-mile stretch of winding water that connects Raystown Lake with the greater Juniata River. There, he was first introduced to smallmouth bass, his all-time favorite fish to target.

As he waded further into the world of fishing and, more specifically, bass fishing, Doyle’s artistic skills naturally merged with his growing interest in the sport. “I used to cut photos out of bass-fishing magazines and recreate them myself,” said Doyle. “At that time, drawing with colored pencils was the extent of my work.” However, he found his way into painting in 2005 when he chose to study fine arts at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
“I tried to paint in high school, and I just didn’t understand or grasp it,” said Doyle. “In college, though, I was required to take a course that taught me its fundamentals. Learning to paint was my dream and I started to get the hang of it, so that was a very happy time for me.” The process began with projects that focused on still imagery using acrylic paint, but once Doyle got to dabble in oil painting, he stuck with it and never looked back. “Acrylic paint dries very quickly while oil-based paint takes some time to dry, so with oil painting, I can more easily blend colors together to achieve the desired effect,” said Doyle. Whether it’s the water’s greenish-blue hue or the shadow of a lunging largemouth, oil painting provided Doyle with creative freedom and encouraged him to get experimental.

Lighting is an important element when it comes to painting realistic depictions of largemouth and smallmouth bass, especially in underwater settings, so Doyle references his own photos to help him breathe life into each piece. “I take pictures of everything I catch so that I can revisit a photo and see where shadows fall or where colors and patterns are more pronounced,” he said. “The fun thing about painting underwater bass is that I can be imaginative in building my own scene, which gives me the chance to make my work look different and stand out. I really enjoy bringing those underwater landscapes to life.” His piece titled “Awaiting Ambush” is a spectacular example of how he portrays a largemouth bass, warming itself under natural sunlight from a subsurface perspective, with an imaginative yet realistic backdrop.

In 2009, Doyle graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and started entering bass-fishing tournaments. “I was in my 20s and had this old 1987 Bayliner, so we’d play around in it during tournaments and usually wound up finishing somewhere in the middle,” he said. Around that time, he was also molding and selling his own custom soft-plastic baits using Popsicle sticks and Sculpey—a polymer clay that led to the birth of the 3-inch paddletail he deemed “The Zipper.”
“I’m a big soft plastics guy,” said Doyle. “I love swimbaits because they’re easy to use and I enjoy fishing open water where they excel in catching smallmouth and largemouth bass.” Unfortunately, his bait-making didn’t last. Doyle married his wife, Janna, in 2013 and moved to North Dakota for seven years, and while he came to love smallmouth bass fishing out there, his bait-making ended in 2016 when it came time to decide on a career path. “It was very rewarding to see the photos of big fish that people were catching on my lures,” Doyle said. But, ultimately, his passion for creating lifelike renderings of bass, walleye, pike, and wildlife outweighed his knack for making quality bass baits.
After seven years in North Dakota, Doyle and his wife returned to south-central Pennsylvania to be closer to his family. Doyle had already achieved his goal of becoming an esteemed fish and wildlife artist, but his next goal was to have his artwork featured in an outdoor magazine like the ones he used to cut pictures from for reference in his childhood illustrations. In 2024, that dream came true two times over when his paintings were published on the January and May covers of Fur-Fish-Game magazine. “My career goal up until last year was to get into a magazine. Now I’ve had two covers and I’m being featured in yours,” Doyle chuckled. In March 2024, he was even awarded “Wildlife Artist of the Year” by the Pennsylvania Taxidermy Association.

When asked what’s next or where he’d like his career to go from here, Doyle said, “My dreams have already come to fruition. It’s freeing to work for myself, make my own schedule, and be recognized by outdoor publications.” He currently works out of his home studio and travels to craft and trade shows to exhibit his art, all while raising two kids and finding enough time to return to the water with his 4-year-old, introducing him to fishing, just like his father and grandfather did for him.
Follow Matt Doyle on IG @mattdoylefineart
Source: https://onthewater.com/angling-artist-matt-doyle
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