Artistic License

"In His Veins ... and His Art"

- Kate Hall

KATE HALL is a colored pencil artist, avid sportswoman and outdoor enthusiast. She enjoys deer hunting, skiing, sewing, baking and working on the family cattle farm but is most often found traveling the country with her husband and English setter in search of upland birds and rising trout. You can see more of her work at katehallart webnode.page.

It is an age-old fact: The sporting world and the art world are intertwined. Both are fueled by experience. Both extend camaraderie. Like making an introduction to a relished creek or covert, I embrace the opportunity to support a fellow sporting artist.

They say when people are drawn to a place, it runs in their veins. The waters of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park run deep through Ian Rutter's veins and in his art.

Ian and his wife Charity operate R and R Fly Fishing in Townsend, Tennessee. As guides, they share the beauty of a magical place, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, with those lucky enough to experience it. Both radiate an appreciation for life and use their individual talents and creativity to the benefit of others. In addition, Ian's art has proven him to be more than an expert fisherman. (Yes, he can tie a Parachute Adams with proficiency and cast it gracefully to a native brook trout on a small stream choked with rhododendron.) But what makes Ian unequivocally distinct?

Ian replicates his experiences with trout through watercolor — using water straight from the creek where he catches them. Stream life becomes not only the subject of his art but also, literally, an element of the artwork itself.