Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Custom Map


I've been working on a custom map of Reindeer Lake in Saskatchewan Canada for Arctic Lodges. Before I paint a lake map, I do a little research to become familiar with the area. 

Boy, did I find some interesting stuff about this area. I found this to be a really cool and captivating place. First off, Arctic Lodge has been around for a long time, in fact since 1950. It has some of the top fishing in Canada and has first class accommodations.  Did you know that a monster lives in the lake, Santa travels over it during Christmas, and a meteorite created a huge bay in this lake? More about this later.

Reindeer Lake is located in the northeast of Saskatchewan and is a big lake, 140 miles long and 37 miles wide. The lake has over 5,000 islands of all sizes to explore. Amazingly, in Deep Bay Crater where a meteorite hit 140 million years ago, the water depth is 720 feet deep. Oh yeah, local legend has it that a monster lives in the bay and pulls animals through the ice during winter. No ice fishing for me! 

Did you know that NORAD use to track Santa's trip across North America and Reindeer Lake was a featured location on Christmas Night as Santa flew over. Learn more about Reindeer Lake at arcticlodges.com.  

Hey, my maps make a great Christmas gifts for the fisherman, lake lover, or Lake house owner. 
Orders are picking up during the holiday's, so order soon. Click here www.LeoLakes.com for more information.


Friday, October 23, 2015

Lake Humor

My Friday's Lake humor cartoon. Well I thought it was funny!

Check out my vintage style lake, river and bay maps. Makes Great Christmas Gifts for the fisherman, lake lover, or Lake house owner. 
Orders are picking up during the holiday's, so order soon. Click here www.LeoLakes.com for more information.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Osprey Dive

I was lucky to capture a few photos of this Osprey flying over Lemon Bay in Florida. This guy or gal has all the latest gear and years of experience to catch a fish. Above the water, the Osprey spots a fish, dives down with its talons ready to tag a fish.  
As I watched, the Osprey maneuvered into a full dive. The Osprey hit the water with a big splash. Amazing what an impact! They're really are tough birds.
Out of the water, but an unsuccessful fishing trip. That was a lot of work with out a meal to show for it.
Later in the day, I did capture a photo of the Osprey on a pole with his catch. Amazingly the fish was still flopping around, but the Osprey had him with those sharp talons. This is certainly fresh sushi. 
Paddle over to my website, LEOLAKES.com I do custom and personalizes lake, river and bay maps. Folks are discovering that these decor maps are wonderfully unique gifts that become family heirlooms. Oh yeah, I hide things in the lakes waters, which make the maps even more interesting. I hide a tiny mermaid/fish in the waters of all my lake map paintings that folks love to search for. I call my maps treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. Makes great Christmas gifts for the fisherman, lake lover, or Lake house owner. 
"Life is short, get away from the big screen and get on a big stream." 

Monday, October 12, 2015

Bait Humor 2

A little lake humor by making bait fun again! Enjoy....
Paddle over to my website, LEOLAKES.com I do custom and personalizes lake, river and bay maps. Folks are discovering that these decor maps are wonderfully unique gifts that become family heirlooms. Oh yeah, I hid things in the lakes waters, which make the maps even more interesting. I hide a tiny mermaid/fish in the waters of all my lake map paintings that folks love to search for. I call my maps treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. 
As you can see, my maps make a great gift. To see more of my work click 
Orders are picking up during the holiday's, so order soon. Click here www.LeoLakes.com for more information.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Leo Maps & Old Field Studio Anniversary

Back in October 2007, I started Old Field Studio. In the beginning, Old Field Studio was focused only on wildlife art. I painted in acrylics on Masonite Art Board. My art had a blurred background, which was done with an airbrush.

The foreground, which was mostly waterfowl, was painted very crisp. This effect gave the picture an almost 3-D look. In fact, a lot of folks thought my art was a photograph. The top of this blog has one of my images showing a great blue heron which was cropped from this picture below.

Folks enjoyed my wildlife art, but I discovered that the market was over saturated with wildlife art, even though I did okay with it. During this time, I wanted a decor map of a river that I grew up on as a kid. After some research, I found that nice decor maps of waterways didn’t exist. There were navigation, road, and topography maps, but not a really nice, vintage style lake, river or bay map that would look great hanging in a home or office.


Luckily, with my artistic talent and creativity, I decided to paint my own map of that treasured river. experimented with different colors and styles to finally settle on a vintage style that gave the painting a golden look. I added a few symbols such as the ruby meridian, wildlife and vintage plane.  


Once completed, I found that others liked the map so much that they asked for copies. This gave me the idea to paint additional rivers, lakes and bays for others to treasure their favorite waters. After a year and a half of experimenting, Leo Lakes Treasured Maps was born, which is part of Old Field Studio. It's hard to believe that its been eight years and I'm still in business. That's pretty much the story of Old Field Studio in a nutshell.

Check-out my website LeoLakes.com