In an oil painting mood as of late so for my first post I will present a completed painting of a Brook trout hunting blueback char in Rangeley lake circa 1870 or so, a little bit of history of the Rangeley lakes region in this one.  The Rangeley lakes chain was always famous for its large brook trout,  smaller Blueback trout (a subspecies of landlocked arctic char) were the primary feed and thought to be the reason for Rangeley's quality brook trout fishery.
Landlocked atlantic salmon were stocked in Rangeley lake around around 1875 to provide another sportfish for vacationing anglers, quickly the smaller blueback began to disappear and by 1900 were thought to be extinct from the lake.   Rainbow smelt were stocked to provide a replacement forage for the bluebacks around year 1891...pretty much finishing off any chance of a comeback for the bluebacks.

What I tried to capture in this latest work was a time prior to stocking of any kind, Rangeley as it should be even today, without human intervention.   Invasive's destroy ecosystems, we know this now, yet illegal stockings continue to this very day,....different subject for a different day I suppose, enough quacking an onto the painting,....