FREE iTouch - iPhone Wallpaper

I have created a set of wallpaper images which you can download to your iTouch or iPhone. Get the entire set free here. Download the Drawing Flies 365 Wallpaper set.

Silver Hilton

"Silver Hilton" 22" x 14" Watercolor and Gouache. This image will be used on an upcoming project that will be revealed shortly. This is the first fly that I have been able to paint using my right hand. Although painful, physical therapy is helping to loosen up my tight right shoulder.

Sketch Blog

"Mill Stream" Sharpie and Watercolor. I have a few new sketches up on my Sketch Blog. Drop by to have a look. You can also receive all of my latest studio news by subscribing to my newsletter. Simply add your email address in the newsletter subscription sidebar.

Pete's Killer Frog

"Pete's Killer Frog" Watercolor and Gouache. Pete H. from my tying club commissioned the painting of his signature fly.

L E F T Y 1

"LEFTY ONE" Watercolor, Sharpie and Gouache. Thanks to all who sent emails and comments! It is greatly appreciated. Well, here is the update. I had a complete tear of the rotator cuff. 4 surgical sutcher screws were inserted and used to repair the cuff arthroscopically. 6 insertion pointss around my shoulder were used to repair the cuff. I also had a frayed bicep tendon. The Doc performed a Bicep Tenodesis. Normal attachment of the biceps tendon is on the shoulder socket and reattaches the tendon to the bone of the humerus (arm bone). By performing a biceps tenodesis, the pressure of the bicpes attachment is taken off the cartilage rim of the shoulder socket (the labrum), and a portion of the biceps tendon can be surgically removed. Essentially a biceps tenodesis moves the attachment of the biceps tendon to a position that is out of the way of the shoulder joint. The tendon is reattached lower on the bone using a screw. Along with general anasthetic, I was also given a nerve block in the right arm. This keeps the arm numb anywhere between 6 to 12 hours. The arm was still nice and numb after surgery due to the block. After the block wore off, a hell broke loose. The pain was incredible. The pain meds had little effect. I did not sleep for 24 hours. Each day has been better. Went to the Doc yesterday to have the staples removed from the port incesions. The staples still remain on the big incesion. The bicep on my arm is completely bruised. looks like it eas beat with a sledge hammer. Physcial therapy begins next week. I am so bored with TV and movies. I felt decent enogh this morning to hit the studio. I grabbed my watercolor sketchbook and a Sharpie and started to draw with the left hand. Not the greatest, I kept my expectations low as was just glad to be drawing and painting again. Grabbed the watercolor brush aand stated laying down washes. This is much easier with the left hand then the drawing portion. I practiced signing my name on a scrap piece of paper using my left hand. As you can see, I opted form my initials. My dear wife has been an incedible help throught this process. I Love her dearly and could not have done this without her.

S U R G E R Y

Bad News - Tomorrow I will be having surgery on my right shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff and a frayed bicep tendon. Since I am right handed, my painting and drawing will be put on hold for a while. Depending on the extent of the recuperation period, I may try my hand at painting left handed. May be a fun and interesting way to pass some time while being laid up. I am hoping for a quick and miraculous recovery!

Book Update

I just wanted to post a brief book update. The book is coming along, slowly. I am in the throws of sizing all of the images, which is a bigger task than expected. Needless to say, I should have a preview of the book available in the next two weeks. At the release of the preview, I will have a firm release date for the book! Thanks for waiting.

Bit Me Bunny

"Bite Me Bunny Fly" This is not your run of the mill Easter Bunny. This is a bunny with attitude! I think about all of the rabbit I have put on flies, and this fly may come back to bite in my dreams. This is one waskly wabbit! Happy Easter Everyone!

Nabours and Friends - Healing Waters Event

Ron S. who has been visiting the Drawing Flies 365 blog since it's inception, has passed along information on an event that he has organized. If you are in the Caney Fork Rivers, TN area this weekend, drop in to check out this event. For more information, check it out here and here.

Red Quill

"Red Quill" Pen , Ink and watercolor. Just a quick sketch to post. I have a number of others I have been working on and will post them shortly.

BWO Cripple

"BWO Cripple" Watercolor and Gouache. If any of you had the chance to drop by and see me at the Whitefish Studio booth at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Exposition in Minneapolis, there is a good chance you saw me working on this fly. John over at Trout Lily Studio had asked me to paint this fly for him. This is one of John's favorite trout flies for the Minnesota spring creeks. It was great to see and meet all of you who dropped by the booth to say hello. I would also like to Thank Bob and Lisa for the great conversation, pizza and a great place to crash during my stay.

Heading To Minneapolis

I will be at the Minneapolis Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo on March 7th and 8th. I will be set up in the Whitefish Studio booth painting with Bob White in the "Studio" section of the booth. I had the privilege of having Bob painting in my booth at the Chicago show. It was a great time seeing Bob paint and having people stop by and introduce themselves. If you are in the area, stop in and say hello! Here are some pictures from the Chicago Show.

Working on the Shanaynay

There is always a joker in the crowd! That's my buddy Corey giving me the Peace Sign or rabbit ears or maybe he wants 2 paintings done.

Bob at work on his latest oil painting.

Pictures courtesy of John Koch at Trout Lily Studio.

SHANAYNAY

"Shanaynay" This is an original pattern by Joseph at One More Cast. I created this painting as a demo at the MidWest Flyfishing Expo this past weekend. There is an interesting story to this fly. If you would like to know more, drop Joseph a line.

"Flats Bunny" Watercolor and Gouache. This fly was created for the winner of the monthly drawing for Boodreaux's Boondocques ESPN radio show at Florida Fishing Radio. The January winner was Jason H. and the fly he requested was the Flats Bunny. Here you go Jason and Congrats!

Jack's Fly

A few weeks back, I received an incredible gift of some retired oil brushes. These brushes were from my good friend Jack, fly tier extraordinaire and an all around great guy to have a pint with. When you look through art catalogs, they have brushes categorized by the type of paint that you create with, brushes for watercolor, oil and so on. I decided to use one of the oil brushes with watercolor to paint this fly. I know it may seem like art blasphemy, but if you do not branch out and push the limits a bit, you will never full realize full creative potential. Thanks Jack for the brushes!

Field and Stream

Tim Ramano editor of the Field and Stream blog has a nice post on my projects. Check it out here. It is fun to read the comments. Thanks Tim for the post!

It's Been Awhile

I know it has been I while since I have posted anything. My product design consulting work has been keeping me really busy lately. Given the state of the economy, I am extremely thankful to be so busy.

With that said, there has been little time to keep up on my painting list. I did just finish a painting and will post it in a day or so. The book is coming along, but slowly. I hope to have it wrapped up in the next 30 days or so.

I have also been preparing for the Great Waters Fly Expo at the Schaumburg Convention Center. If you are in the area Feb 20th-22nd. Stop on by my booth. I will have live painting demos and prints for sale.

Jeff

I had the privilege of being interviewed by John "Boodreaux" Bauman and Steve Chapman on ESPN Outdoor Radio. It was great fun to talk with these guys about the Drawing Flies 365 project. You can learn more about Boodreuax's Boondoques over at Fishing Florida Radio.
The guys have a monthly contest going going on so click here to get all of the details.

Click HERE to hear the podcast. You can listen to all of the podcasts HERE.

Milwaukee Marauder

"Milwaukee Marauder" 15" x 22" Watercolor and Gouache. Well, it has been a while since I have had a chance to post anything. I do have to admit that it has been a bit strange not drawing flies everyday! The Milwaukee Marauder is a derivative of a pattern that I did which produced the brightest and hottest steelhead I have ever caught. I tied this pattern up for a fly swap that we had last night. I am a part of a loosely organized group of steelhead junkies that chase chrome with a double hander in and around the Milwaukee area. This is an incredible group of guys that get together once a month to BS about steelhead, flies and cool places to fish. Guys in this group have chased steelhead all over the U.S., so the group has a diverse and interesting talent base. We ususlly run into someone from the group whenever we take a trip to fish up on the river.

What's Next

What a year it has been! What started out as a simple challenge to myself blossomed into an incredible experience I will never forget. I want to thank my wife and two boys for their support and for putting up with me and my pursuit. I also want to thank all of you for following me on this journey. I am so grateful for the many kind emails and comments that I have received this past year. It was this type of encouragement that kept me going. I also want to thank all that have purchased my art. It is an incredible feeling to know that my art has touched people in such a positive way. I have met so many helpful people along the way and to all I give a big thanks.

Many have asked and emailed me wondering what I plan on doing next.

The Drawing Flies 365 project and the blog will stick around. There are still many flies that still need to be painted. I truly enjoy painting flies and will continue to do so. The only caveat is that I will not be doing this on a daily basis. I will post flies as I paint or create them. I will still take print orders and commission requests To get all of the latest updates, please point your RSS reader to the blog or sign up using Feedburner (Box on right margin of the blog). You may also email me to sign up for my "Off The Easel" Newsletter. This is a bi-monthly newsletter that keeps the subscribers up to date on all of the events and new paintings from Jeff Kennedy Studio. Rest assured that this is a private list and is not shared with anyone.

The reason the fly art will not be conducted on a daily basis is that I need that time to move onto some other projects that require my attention.

The first project is the publication of the Drawing Flies 365 book. About a quarter of the way through this project, I started to think about the possibilities of such a book. My plans are to have this book available for an end of January release. The book will include most of the flies created along with my thoughts that occurred during the creation of the paintings. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing the book. The book will be a high quality coffee table style hardbound book. The estimated cost will be around $79 each book. For the first 15 people that pre purchase the book, I will sign and number each book. I will also include a print with your book. Click this link to make a $20 pre purchase to reserve your book. Your $20 dollars deposit will be subtracted from the purchase price one the book is available.



The next project is one that I have been toying with but have not seriously put the effort into until now. That project is Brook.

Brook is a project that was conceived a few years back. I really admire the work of Varga and Gil Elvgren. Their ability to render the human form while telling an incredible story from their images set the wheels in motion to create Brook. The one area of drawing and painting that I would like to improve on is the human form. I would like to take some life drawing classes and work on my gouache renderings of the human body. My goal is to create a calendar with brook in various fishing situations. landing a trout, sunning herself in a float tube while catching blugill or fighting a leaping tarpon are just some of the ideas.

Brook has a website, but the first order of business is to bring it up to date. That will happen the first part of this month. I have also created a blog where I will be posting my progress on this journey. The blog was just created and needs some design attention. This will also happen the first part of January.



So there you have it. Drawing Flies 365 will still continue to exist, Brook is born and a book chronicling the Drawing Flies adventure will be available soon.

I also would like to spend more time on my landscape painting. You can view my paintings on my website in the gallery section (which will be updated) or at my sketch blog.

This Saturday (Jan 3rd) I will be interviewed by Boodreaux and Steve Chapman on Orlando ESPN Radio. You can listen to the live stream or you will be able to download the podcast later after the broadcast. You can go to the website for more information.