Gunnar Johnson Watercolors of Flies

[gingerdun]

The subject of postage stamps came up in the Member's area. That reminded me that Gunnar Johnson, author of Flymfer, and great friend of my father's, sent me this pane of Cinderella stamps that he made for the magazine he edited, Flugfiske i Norden.



Any of you have any comments on this Swedish smorgasbord?
Thoughts about Gunnar? Now retired, he is an important environmentalist, as well as writer, fly-tier, artist, and editor.
He was a great advocate of the flymph who is too little known in the English-speaking countries. His correspondence with my father was vast, an angling history treasure that I have archived chronologically in three binders each with a 4-inch spine.

This raises the question, if the Forum were to produce a pane of twenty stamps, which patterns would qualify for the honor?
It would be very cool to have, just for fun, a kind of wingless wet honor roll.

Not that I could do anything with it in the foreseeable future, my plate being too full as it is.
This is just a Friday night lark.

Regards from Merrimac,

Lance

[redietz]

A beautiful set of stamps. I must say, though, that the Stewart's spider in much more colorful that any I've seen in real life.

[DOUGSDEN]

Lance,
This is really cool! To answer your question, Yes! I think we could come up with "The Top Twenty" for a pane such as this! I'll start working on my choices a.s.a.p. I can only imagine the flood of responses you will be receiving shortly!
It was fascinating as well to receive an update on Gunnar Johnson. It would be of great interest to all of us if you could reveal some (or all?) of the correspondence' between him and your father. Much like you do with the pictures and histories that you post here on the forum! Would there be enough corr.'s in those four binders to foster a book?
Exciting news you bring to us Lance!
Doug

[gingerdun]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for the comments. I realize that this Fly Dressings area was probably the wrong place to post this, even though it is about fly dressings. The task of choosing 20 prime wingless wets seems very arbitrary, and subject to endless debate. So much depends on locality and season. Still, there might be twenty that rise to the top. I never should have brought it up, since I have absolutely no time to spend on this, with the book so far behind schedule. I seriously doubt that there will be a "flood of responses." But time will tell if the idea has merit.

The Gunnar Johnson/ Pete Hidy papers are extensive, and could eventually justify a volume of their own. I will put a taste of them in the book. The prize would be an English translation of Gunnar's FLYMFER, considered by some to be a classic of fly fishing literature. At one time Gunnar was enthusiastic, but with his declining health and other distractions, the translation project never got off the ground.

Lance

[William Anderson]

Lance, it's this kind of thinking that brings something amazing from a single comment. This could work. My plate is currently overwhelmed as well and I would have some difficulty putting this at the top of the list...but it does have merit and I would hate to see the idea fade. Maybe if there is some initial input and some impulsive movement on my part to move the conversation along, it might happen. Just getting the list together would be fun. To have them illustrated would be very exciting. It's a fun idea and I hope this stays in the front of my mind long enough to move on it...but it's crowded and foggy. What were we talking about?

I'll have to come back to this. I would love to hear some suggestions. At least the debate would be of some interest to more than a few.

Thanks so much for posting the watercolors. They are a treat to see.

w

[Mataura mayfly]

Lance, this is a fantastic sheet. The flies represented are true reflections of worldwide original patterns in their true form. The up-eyed hook favoured by your Father, the square bend of the Skues Nymph and the gut snelled to the Stewart Spider, all very true to form of the original ties.
A treasure you have there, thank you for sharing.

The best known series like that we have here was just four stamps from the 1990's depicting Brown, Rainbow, Sea-Run and Brook trout and a fly that would be used for each per stamp. You would think in a nation known for it's trout fishing there would have been more.
There was a run a few years ago where each town could have a series of stamps commissioned showing iconic images of local interest, Gore had some with a guy casting on the Mataura and the iconic huge fibreglass trout statue in the middle of town....... but you will see that soon enough.

You have been entrusted with a huge slice of fly fishing history, in particular the branch of the tree that we all enjoy. Thank you for sharing so much of it in such a short period of time. You are a busy man within the rest of your life, bringing us stuff to enjoy takes more of that time and we really appreciate it. In saying that, with the wonderful stuff of your father's you are sharing with us, you are still forming and carving out your own niche in this community. Keep fostering your own styles and identity...... we all enjoy that side as well.

[Old Hat]

Beautiful stamps. I love seeing works like this. I could look at fly photos all day seven days a week. Thanks Lance for sharing those.

A 20 list would be interesting.

[Kelly L.]

Beautiful set of flies on those stamps. I would love to have a sheet of those. They would look good in a frame on the wall. Sweeeet work!

[daringduffer]

One of these flies is called "Skomakaren", which translates into "The Cobbler". I have just read a book about the creator of that fly, and a whole series of other flies. His name was Oscar Fick and he was a cobbler, born 1886. The reason for him to create his flies was that he found the British flies lacking in effectiveness. He fished them using a bamboo pole,with a length of about six to seven meters (20 - 23'). Line was tied to the tip of the rod. His series of 28 flies were tied by himself and his daughter and were called "Hedeflugorna" (The Hede Flies). Hede was the name of the village they lived in, situated not far north of where Frank Sawyer introduced nymph fishing in Sweden. The only tool they used for their tying was a pair of scissors. Oscars daughter Alma Nordlund kept tying flies commercially until her death at the beginning of this millenium. When she died, she had just prepared an order for more fly tying material...

dd

Link to photo added: http://op.se/lanet/harjedalen/1.2576980 ... re?m=print

[Mataura mayfly]

Not to take anything away from the fabulous sheet Lance offered, but here are some NZ postage stamps depicting flies or fly fishing I have framed above the computer.





Excuse the reflections and crumby photos.