Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 13 is my conversation with Derek DeYoung, who I consider the top artist in the marine industry right now. Derek paints everything from trout to saltwater species to abstract work, and his graphic, contemporary style shows up on products everywhere. He is also a serious angler who has spent nine years in Montana and six years in the Florida Keys. We talk about how he built this career, from Michigan art fairs to licensing his art, and how a life on the water feeds everything he makes.
Listen now: press play in the player above to watch the full conversation, or stream Episode 13 on your favorite podcast app.
Derek DeYoung is a renowned artist in the fishing and marine community, known for a graphic, contemporary style covering everything from trout to saltwater species to abstract work. Tom calls him the top artist in the marine industry. Derek went to art school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is also a dedicated angler who has lived and fished in Montana and the Florida Keys, with his time on the water directly informing his paintings.
Derek started out doing juried summer art fairs in Michigan after art school, setting up a ten-by-ten booth and selling paintings directly. He loved talking to people about his work but realized quickly there was not a real living in the fair circuit. He pivoted toward licensing his graphic, contemporary art onto products, betting that his style would translate well, and pushed forward even though he did not yet know how to reach the right companies.
Derek is a genuine fisherman, not just an artist who paints fish. He packed a vehicle with fishing, camping, and art gear and drove from Michigan to Colorado, scheduling one-man art shows at fly shops and lodges out west. Within a couple of weeks he was hooked on the fishing, the scenery, and the people, and he decided to move west, which began a fishing-driven life that shaped his art.
Derek has spent nine years in Montana and six years in the Florida Keys, where Tom interviewed him in his makeshift studio under his house in Big Pine Key. At the time of the conversation he was preparing to move back to Northern Michigan. He fishes the Keys on his own, running his own skiff out his back door, which Tom notes is genuinely difficult to do solo.
Derek paints a wide range of subjects in a bold, graphic, contemporary style, from freshwater trout to saltwater gamefish to abstract pieces, including acrylic pours. His work appears across the marine and fishing industry on prints and licensed products. He treats each painting as something he has invested deeply in personally, describing it as putting part of himself on the canvas.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 13 with Derek DeYoung is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I have admired Derek's art for a long time, and his work seemed to be everywhere all at once, the kind of overnight success that is really twenty years in the making. He came down to film an episode of Saltwater Experience with us, and he is not just an artist, he is a real fisherman running his own skiff in the Keys. I had a lot of questions for him.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole conversation.
Derek's start was the summer art-fair circuit, a ten-by-ten booth, paintings on the walls, and long conversations with people about his work. He loved it, but he is honest that there was no real living in it. He explains the moment he realized he had to push his career in a different direction. Worth hearing in his own words.
The turn that built his career was deciding his graphic, contemporary look would work on products. Derek did not know how to reach the right companies, but he had faith in the style and kept pushing. He walks through how that decision changed everything about how he makes a living as an artist. Listen to that section of the episode.
Derek packed a vehicle with fishing, camping, and art gear and drove from Michigan to Colorado, booking one-man shows at fly shops and lodges by cold-searching online. Within weeks he was hooked on the fishing, the scenery, and the people, and he decided to move west. It is a great story about following the thing you love and building a career around it. Press play in the player above.
What sets Derek apart is that he lives the subject he paints. Nine years in Montana, six in the Florida Keys, and a plan to head back to Northern Michigan, all of it fishing nearly every day. He talks about how that time on the water shows up in the work. Scroll up and watch the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What I respect most about Derek is that he is as good at building the business of his art as he is at the art itself. He did not wait to be discovered. He drove west with a trunk full of gear and made it happen.
Anyone trying to turn a creative passion into a living should hear how he did it, and how much real fishing is underneath all of it.
Press play in the player above to hear how it all fits together.
Derek DeYoung · Saltwater Experience · Big Pine Key, Florida · Montana · Northern Michigan · Grand Rapids, Michigan · Rocky Mountain National Park · George Anderson
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Derek DeYoung is a renowned fish and marine artist known for a bold, graphic, contemporary style spanning trout, saltwater gamefish, and abstract work that appears across the fishing industry on prints and licensed products. A Grand Rapids, Michigan art school graduate and dedicated angler, he has lived and fished in Montana and the Florida Keys, building a career that blends a life on the water with one of the most recognizable visual styles in the sport.
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