Nick Mayer

The son of an artist and a biologist, Nick Mayer seems to have found a unique niche between these two disciplines. Nick has used his undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology from Brown University as a vehicle to spend most of his adult life traveling in pursuit of fish. He has done so as an artist, a science teacher, a commercial fisherman in Alaska, a field research biologist, and a saltwater and freshwater fly fisherman.

While investigating the effects of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill on sockeye salmon, restoring spawning habitats for the last wild strain of 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. His paintings are not just portraits of fish they are windows into real experience — his experience.

His works have been exhibited in galleries on both the East and West Coasts of the United States, including the Urban League Club in Manhattan, NY; J. Russell Jinishian Gallery, Fairfield, CT; the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport; The Gamefish Gallery in Key West, Florida; The Bristol Art Museum, RI; The American Museum of Fly Fishing, VT; Gallery West, VA; The Scrimshaw Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard, MA; and The Cordova Museum in AK.

Nick painted a 15′x 40′ outdoor mural scene in Vergennes, Vermont that was funded by matching grants from The Vermont Arts Council and People of Addison County Together. He also completed a series of paintings/sculptures of moths that was funded by a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation. He is presently working on a childrens’ book that incorporates his fish paintings.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and raised in Riverside, Rhode Island, Nick now lives in Lincoln, Vermont with his wife and two sons.