We at TBF are proud to present Nick Mayer as our 2016 Artist of the Year. This year marks The Billfish Foundation’s 30th Anniversary, so we wanted a unique work of art to commemorate this milestone. Nick’s beautiful painting, Billfish Slam is featured on the cover of this issue of Billfish. Members joining or renewing for $250 or more will receive a personally signed and numbered edition of Billfish Slam. Each print presented to TBF Chairman’s Club members will also include a beautiful hand-painted remarque.
The son of an artist and a biologist, Nick Mayer has the best of both worlds. He utilized undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology from Brown University as tools to study and help in the conservation of fish. He has done so as an artist, a teacher, a research biologist, and a fly fisherman.
While investigating the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on sockeye salmon, restoring spawning habitats for steelhead in the Columbia River, studying the nesting habits of sea turtles in Costa Rica, or fishing small streams in the Green Mountains for brook trout, Nick has kept detailed sketchbooks to later use as references in his watercolors.
Close encounters that include falling overboard off a commercial fishing vessel into the Bering Sea followed by a near float plane crash in Northern Labrador inspired Nick to pursue his true calling as an artist. His paintings are not just portraits of fish, they are windows into real experience—his experience.
His works have been exhibited in many esteemed galleries on both the East and West coasts. Nick completed two large outdoor murals; an underwater scene located in the center of Vergennes, Vermont and a privately commissioned creative depiction of the evolution of life. Nick completed the illustration of his first book, Catalina Dive Buddies, a coffee table art book and field guide to the fish of Catalina Island, California.
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and raised in Riverside, Rhode Island, Nick now lives in Lincoln, Vermont with his wife and two sons where he works as a full time professional artist. Nick’s work can be viewed online at nickmayerart.com and Nick can be contacted by phone at 802.349.2733 or email: [email protected].
