ARTIST PROFILE
Kib Bramhall
The Passions of a Painter and a Fisherman
Profile by Karla Araujo
WÂith his still-boyish looks and obvious passion for everything he does, it’s hard to view Kib Bramhall as an elder statesman of the Vineyard. And yet, at 78, Kib has earned a reputation as one of our most respected artists and fishermen, staking his claim on this Island and its surrounding seas with both paintbrush and fishing rod.
In January 2011, more than 65 years after his first visit to the Vineyard, Kib devised a new means to share some of his passions with a larger audience: “I was looking through some of my fishing essays,” he explains, “and the idea struck me that perhaps I could make a book of them, illustrated by my paintings with subject matter that was compatible with the stories.”
He ran the idea by Tess, his wife of 56 years, who was enthusiastic about the concept. Putting production skills to work that he learned on the job during his 18-year stint at Salt Water Sportsman magazine beginning in 1956, Kib created a dummy of the book. He presented it to Jan Pogue, editor and president of Vineyard Stories, a custom publishing firm in Edgartown. Jan had thought of approaching Kib with a similar idea for a retrospective of his paintings but had no idea he was a writer as well.
“I try to publish books that define the culture of the Vineyard,” says Pogue. “What could be better than a book about fishing? Combine that with Kib’s talents, both in painting and with words, and I knew this was going to be a beautiful, fun, and interesting book.”
With a delighted publisher on board, Kib approached graphic designer and friend Alley Moore, who signed on as art director. His younger daughter, Nina Bramhall, an accomplished professional photographer, shot images of his newest work. From incubation to completion in a remarkably accelerated five months, Bright Waters, Shining Tides: Reflections on a Lifetime of Fishing, Paintings and Essays by Kib Bramhall, emerged this past summer on retail shelves around the Island. And with it blossomed a new appreciation for Kib’s gifts as sportsman and artist.
The 96-page coffee table book includes 11 essays and 50 photographs and illustrations, offering readers a colorful glimpse into Kib’s fishing expertise and zeal, as well as his artistic interpretations of the land, the sea, and their inhabitants. With photographs retrieved from family archives, as well as oil paintings and illustrations rendered during a half-century across the Vineyard and at favorite fishing destinations worldwide, Bright Waters, Shining Tides lures even the non-fisherman.
Beginning with his early childhood in the 1930s, Kib evokes vivid memories of his fishing-addicted extended family – his father, paternal grandfather, three aunts and two uncles who engaged in season-long surf fishing contests each summer on the Jersey shore, long before it became known as the home of Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen or Snooki of reality show fame. The unspoiled Jersey shore of Kib’s youth, with his family’s sprawling beach house “Upsandunes,” gave birth to, as Kib puts it, “a willing and devout student of a pastime that I would practice into the next century.”
But by 1947, Kib’s grandparents had died and his parents had begun to rent a summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. Enthralled with this new land and its waters, he recounts the Island as he first experienced it:
“The waterfront streets in downtown Edgartown were unpaved, there was a blacksmith shop and a fish market near the yacht club, and Manuel Schwartz was still making catboats in the building that now houses the Old Sculpin art gallery. ‘Up Island’ was only a rumor to most summer people, and electricity and phones were just coming to North Road in Chilmark and West Tisbury. The Island as a summer resort had been discovered by only a prescient few, and day trippers had not been invented yet.”
Bright Waters, Shining Tides, part travelogue, part Vineyard “love story,” and all about angling, traces Kib’s adventures in fishing – his mentors, friends, frustrations, yearnings, and successes – through tales that feature legendary colleagues, techniques, equipment, favorite destinations, and memorable catches.
In an ode to the elusive bonefish that is both exciting and lyrical, Kib concludes: “The fish accelerated, tipped, and was on. And then there was that classic hell-bent, furious run. And then another. And a third. And after a while I reached down and grasped the fly and slipped it out of his mouth and watched him regain his strength and move away until his disguise made him invisible again. I felt as though I were part of a timeless ritual that spoke eloquently to a fundamental yearning for contact with our watery beginnings.”
If the big fish stories fail to hook you, the book also serves as a photo album and visual retrospective of some 50 years of Kib’s paintings and illustrations. Known primarily for his representational oil paintings of the Vineyard’s natural environment, particularly where land and sea intersect, Bright Waters, Shining Tides also includes a sprinkling of aqua-hued tropical seascapes (think Eleuthera and the Yucatan) and luminous renderings of fish. Through Kib’s eyes, we see the early light, dunes, gulls, grasses, surf, shadows, skies and sunsets of the Island. Page after page, the book invites us to fall newly in love with our natural surroundings.
But the book aside, Kib’s contributions to the Vineyard fishing and art communities are the stuff of legend. He showed his paintings with art dealer Carol Craven for 15 years, from the opening of her first Island gallery in 1996 to the closing of her final gallery in West Tisbury following the summer of 2010. An art consultant and gallery director in New York City since the early 1970s, Carol was known for her representation of nationally and locally acclaimed artists, building what she called “a serious gallery with serious purpose.”
“Kib represents the very best of all that Vineyard art can be,” Carol says. “He has a deep, passionate love of the place and respect for all that the Island is. His technical abilities as a painter are superb, and he captures in his work all the things about the Vineyard that people love – the light, the gorgeousness of the place, the enormous sea and sky – he translates all of this with his fine eye and great skill.”
Following the closing of the Craven Gallery, Kib began showing at Bramhall & Dunn, a classic yet eclectic home furnishings store owned by Emily Bramhall, his older daughter, located on Main Street in Vineyard Haven. The summer of 2011, Kib maintains, was one of his best seasons ever. In November 2011, however, Emily announced that she was closing the business after 28 years. As for the future, Kib suggests watching the local media for any possible exhibitions.
“I’m no longer motivated by commercial pressures,” he explains. “I basically ‘sold out’ all of the paintings I exhibited with Emily. I don’t feel any external pressure now, so I’m only painting for myself. I am not at all prolific, and I only paint when the muse sits on my shoulder and tells me that something I’ve seen absolutely must be painted.”
And, while he used to keep detailed fishing journals and plan his outings based on the tides, wind direction, and other scientific data, Kib now confesses to grabbing his gear whenever the urge arises. “Sometimes I just go,” he admits cheerily. “It keeps me off the streets.”
A four-time International Game Fish Association world record-holder, winner of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, and member of the Derby Hall of Fame, Kib is respected as much for his integrity and conservationist proclivities as for his prowess.
His advice to fishing novices: “Spend as much time on the water as you can. Observe. Learn from others. And rely on trial and error.”
Surrounded by his family (his three children and six grandchildren, ages 17 to 24, all live at least part-time on the Island), Kib refers to his wife and their partnership as “the foundation on which much of my success is grounded.” With family as “the core” of his life, he sums up his other pleasures: “Good company, good friends, good food, good books, good wine.” He relishes his frequent tennis games, observing: “Unlike fishing, your opponent always shows up.”
As for the future, another book might be in the offing. After all, Bright Waters, Shining Tides was, as Kib says, “one of the highlights of my life.” He adds: “I open it every day and marvel that it exists.” And then, diverting from fish and sea, he envisions that other volume: “I have a lot of paintings that don’t feature water – many winter landscapes. I’d have to develop an idea for the text”.
Bright Waters, Shining Tides: Reflections on a Lifetime of Fishing is available at Island bookstores, at www.vineyardstories.com and www.amazon.com.
In January 2011, more than 65 years after his first visit to the Vineyard, Kib devised a new means to share some of his passions with a larger audience: “I was looking through some of my fishing essays,” he explains, “and the idea struck me that perhaps I could make a book of them, illustrated by my paintings with subject matter that was compatible with the stories.”
He ran the idea by Tess, his wife of 56 years, who was enthusiastic about the concept. Putting production skills to work that he learned on the job during his 18-year stint at Salt Water Sportsman magazine beginning in 1956, Kib created a dummy of the book. He presented it to Jan Pogue, editor and president of Vineyard Stories, a custom publishing firm in Edgartown. Jan had thought of approaching Kib with a similar idea for a retrospective of his paintings but had no idea he was a writer as well.
“I try to publish books that define the culture of the Vineyard,” says Pogue. “What could be better than a book about fishing? Combine that with Kib’s talents, both in painting and with words, and I knew this was going to be a beautiful, fun, and interesting book.”
With a delighted publisher on board, Kib approached graphic designer and friend Alley Moore, who signed on as art director. His younger daughter, Nina Bramhall, an accomplished professional photographer, shot images of his newest work. From incubation to completion in a remarkably accelerated five months, Bright Waters, Shining Tides: Reflections on a Lifetime of Fishing, Paintings and Essays by Kib Bramhall, emerged this past summer on retail shelves around the Island. And with it blossomed a new appreciation for Kib’s gifts as sportsman and artist.
The 96-page coffee table book includes 11 essays and 50 photographs and illustrations, offering readers a colorful glimpse into Kib’s fishing expertise and zeal, as well as his artistic interpretations of the land, the sea, and their inhabitants. With photographs retrieved from family archives, as well as oil paintings and illustrations rendered during a half-century across the Vineyard and at favorite fishing destinations worldwide, Bright Waters, Shining Tides lures even the non-fisherman.
Beginning with his early childhood in the 1930s, Kib evokes vivid memories of his fishing-addicted extended family – his father, paternal grandfather, three aunts and two uncles who engaged in season-long surf fishing contests each summer on the Jersey shore, long before it became known as the home of Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen or Snooki of reality show fame. The unspoiled Jersey shore of Kib’s youth, with his family’s sprawling beach house “Upsandunes,” gave birth to, as Kib puts it, “a willing and devout student of a pastime that I would practice into the next century.”
But by 1947, Kib’s grandparents had died and his parents had begun to rent a summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. Enthralled with this new land and its waters, he recounts the Island as he first experienced it:
“The waterfront streets in downtown Edgartown were unpaved, there was a blacksmith shop and a fish market near the yacht club, and Manuel Schwartz was still making catboats in the building that now houses the Old Sculpin art gallery. ‘Up Island’ was only a rumor to most summer people, and electricity and phones were just coming to North Road in Chilmark and West Tisbury. The Island as a summer resort had been discovered by only a prescient few, and day trippers had not been invented yet.”
Bright Waters, Shining Tides, part travelogue, part Vineyard “love story,” and all about angling, traces Kib’s adventures in fishing – his mentors, friends, frustrations, yearnings, and successes – through tales that feature legendary colleagues, techniques, equipment, favorite destinations, and memorable catches.
In an ode to the elusive bonefish that is both exciting and lyrical, Kib concludes: “The fish accelerated, tipped, and was on. And then there was that classic hell-bent, furious run. And then another. And a third. And after a while I reached down and grasped the fly and slipped it out of his mouth and watched him regain his strength and move away until his disguise made him invisible again. I felt as though I were part of a timeless ritual that spoke eloquently to a fundamental yearning for contact with our watery beginnings.”
If the big fish stories fail to hook you, the book also serves as a photo album and visual retrospective of some 50 years of Kib’s paintings and illustrations. Known primarily for his representational oil paintings of the Vineyard’s natural environment, particularly where land and sea intersect, Bright Waters, Shining Tides also includes a sprinkling of aqua-hued tropical seascapes (think Eleuthera and the Yucatan) and luminous renderings of fish. Through Kib’s eyes, we see the early light, dunes, gulls, grasses, surf, shadows, skies and sunsets of the Island. Page after page, the book invites us to fall newly in love with our natural surroundings.
But the book aside, Kib’s contributions to the Vineyard fishing and art communities are the stuff of legend. He showed his paintings with art dealer Carol Craven for 15 years, from the opening of her first Island gallery in 1996 to the closing of her final gallery in West Tisbury following the summer of 2010. An art consultant and gallery director in New York City since the early 1970s, Carol was known for her representation of nationally and locally acclaimed artists, building what she called “a serious gallery with serious purpose.”
“Kib represents the very best of all that Vineyard art can be,” Carol says. “He has a deep, passionate love of the place and respect for all that the Island is. His technical abilities as a painter are superb, and he captures in his work all the things about the Vineyard that people love – the light, the gorgeousness of the place, the enormous sea and sky – he translates all of this with his fine eye and great skill.”
Following the closing of the Craven Gallery, Kib began showing at Bramhall & Dunn, a classic yet eclectic home furnishings store owned by Emily Bramhall, his older daughter, located on Main Street in Vineyard Haven. The summer of 2011, Kib maintains, was one of his best seasons ever. In November 2011, however, Emily announced that she was closing the business after 28 years. As for the future, Kib suggests watching the local media for any possible exhibitions.
“I’m no longer motivated by commercial pressures,” he explains. “I basically ‘sold out’ all of the paintings I exhibited with Emily. I don’t feel any external pressure now, so I’m only painting for myself. I am not at all prolific, and I only paint when the muse sits on my shoulder and tells me that something I’ve seen absolutely must be painted.”
And, while he used to keep detailed fishing journals and plan his outings based on the tides, wind direction, and other scientific data, Kib now confesses to grabbing his gear whenever the urge arises. “Sometimes I just go,” he admits cheerily. “It keeps me off the streets.”
A four-time International Game Fish Association world record-holder, winner of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, and member of the Derby Hall of Fame, Kib is respected as much for his integrity and conservationist proclivities as for his prowess.
His advice to fishing novices: “Spend as much time on the water as you can. Observe. Learn from others. And rely on trial and error.”
Surrounded by his family (his three children and six grandchildren, ages 17 to 24, all live at least part-time on the Island), Kib refers to his wife and their partnership as “the foundation on which much of my success is grounded.” With family as “the core” of his life, he sums up his other pleasures: “Good company, good friends, good food, good books, good wine.” He relishes his frequent tennis games, observing: “Unlike fishing, your opponent always shows up.”
As for the future, another book might be in the offing. After all, Bright Waters, Shining Tides was, as Kib says, “one of the highlights of my life.” He adds: “I open it every day and marvel that it exists.” And then, diverting from fish and sea, he envisions that other volume: “I have a lot of paintings that don’t feature water – many winter landscapes. I’d have to develop an idea for the text”.
Bright Waters, Shining Tides: Reflections on a Lifetime of Fishing is available at Island bookstores, at www.vineyardstories.com and www.amazon.com.