Born and raised in his current hometown of Poquoson, VA, artist Josh Jordan has saltwater in his veins. “I grew up running around the Lower Chesapeake Bay, mostly in the Poquoson River, fishing with my dad and grandfather,” he says. “The whole family would go out on the weekend or fish any day of the week we could.” During his working hours, his grandfather was a commercial fisherman.
In college at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA, a friend of Jordan asked him to fish on a tournament fishing team, and he jumped at the opportunity. The friend was a captain on a 36-foot Atlantic, an open, express-style sportfishing boat, on which Jordan worked as a mate traveling up and down the East Coast fishing in tournaments.
“At a young age I was drawing and took a strong liking to it. I stayed with it through high school and majored in art in college,” he says. Feeling burned out after graduation, he took three years off from artmaking. “Something pushed me back into drawing and painting. As I started posting some of my stuff to Facebook, people started asking me to paint things for them. I looked at it as a way to make more money for my fishing fund.”
After some serious health complications and another break from art, he met his wife, Courtney, who encouraged him to get back to his creative endeavors. He admits he sometimes spends more than 200 hours on one painting before signing it, sacrificing sleep and other activities. “I am extremely fortunate to have a wife who believes in my potential to achieve my goals as an artist and to eventually become a household name among the fishing community,” he says.
Jordan isn’t picky about his medium; although color and graphite pencil remain his favorite tools. Recently, he’s worked in fish taxidermy, putting a new coat of paint on mounted fish to make them look as realistic as possible. He does murals, acrylic canvases, digital work, and custom vinyl decals among other commissions.
Visit facebook.com/captjordanstudio to learn more.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017 - 07:00
Born and raised in his current hometown of Poquoson, VA, artist Josh Jordan has saltwater in his veins. “I grew up running around the Lower Chesapeake Bay, mostly in the Poquoson River, fishing with my dad and grandfather,” he says. “The whole family would go out on the weekend or fish any day of the week we could.” During his working hours, his grandfather was a commercial fisherman.
In college at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA, a friend of Jordan asked him to fish on a tournament fishing team, and he jumped at the opportunity. The friend was a captain on a 36-foot Atlantic, an open, express-style sportfishing boat, on which Jordan worked as a mate traveling up and down the East Coast fishing in tournaments.
“At a young age I was drawing and took a strong liking to it. I stayed with it through high school and majored in art in college,” he says. Feeling burned out after graduation, he took three years off from artmaking. “Something pushed me back into drawing and painting. As I started posting some of my stuff to Facebook, people started asking me to paint things for them. I looked at it as a way to make more money for my fishing fund.”
After some serious health complications and another break from art, he met his wife, Courtney, who encouraged him to get back to his creative endeavors. He admits he sometimes spends more than 200 hours on one painting before signing it, sacrificing sleep and other activities. “I am extremely fortunate to have a wife who believes in my potential to achieve my goals as an artist and to eventually become a household name among the fishing community,” he says.
Jordan isn’t picky about his medium; although color and graphite pencil remain his favorite tools. Recently, he’s worked in fish taxidermy, putting a new coat of paint on mounted fish to make them look as realistic as possible. He does murals, acrylic canvases, digital work, and custom vinyl decals among other commissions.
Visit facebook.com/captjordanstudio to learn more.