Meet Our Featured Artist - Steve T. Goione

TAKING MARINE ART TO A HIGHER PLANE

Sport fishermen—especially pelagic warriors who favor billfish, tuna and wahoo—have a distinct preference in things artistic.

It tends to center on their favorite creatures of the deep and the boats they use to pursue them. Their special tastes spawned a school loosely defined as “marine art” and a small stable of artist who share their passion and use their skills to depict scenes that hopefully catch the eye, and garner the patronage of, the men and women who fish offshore waters. This small circle of artists and patrons is the rarified atmosphere in which Steve Goione thrives.

Goione is an original in every sense of the word. In an arena where commonplace is frequently the standard his art is immediately identifiable and distinctly different. His ability to capture the strength, grace and beauty of his living subjects is uncanny, while his technical skills and eye for detail are at the core of his ability to depict sport fishing boats down to the minutest design elements that set one boat apart from another.

Combining these two disparate abilities can leave an admirer of his work to wonder at their source, but a look at his progression from childhood years spent between an ocean and a bay, education at a leading art school, early graphic design work in a business setting, and the influence of his lifelong love of fishing, which led him to apply his talents where his heart truly lies, paint a vivid picture of the artist and his inspiration.

Fine artists are rarely self-taught and those that are find their ability to grow limited. Steve Goione built upon his early interest in art by attending the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design, a four year institution that boasts alumni that includes some of today’s finest artists, sculptors and illustrators.

“Looking back, the years I spent at Ringling were definitely time well spent,” Steve reminisced. “There were classes that involved hours of observing something as simple as a leaf or a rock before we were allowed to touch pencil to paper. At the time I thought ‘this is crazy’, but in hindsight the impact it had on my future work was profound. It forced me to develop my perception and to see things in ways I had not before. It taught me to recognize elements important to depicting three dimensional forms on a two dimensional surface, which is the heart and soul of transforming objects into artistic images.”

Art school was followed by a short career in graphic design working for a company that required Steve to use both his talent as an illustrator and his eye for creating appealing layouts for catalogs and advertisements. The work was structured and demanded precision, but it did not appeal to Steve’s desire to create fine art. Even then he was fishing whenever he could and he began combining his favorite pastime with his desire to create images from his experiences on and around the water. Steve was drawn to the stark realism of pen and ink incorporating a technique called “stippling,” which he still uses today, but frequently in concert with water colors and other mixed mediums.

Among his earliest works were depictions of a large mako shark on the scales of a local marina; a cruising giant bluefin tuna; and a jumble of trawlers tied up behind a commercial fishing co-op. All were scenes that had the ability to draw the observer’s eye into the image while conveying the essence of the scene.

The mako on the scale captures the thrill of making the catch of a lifetime mixed with the sadness evoked by the finality of the kill. The giant bluefin subtly portrays the power, strength and grace of one of the ocean’s most magnificent creatures. And the trawler scene juxtaposes the geometric shapes of the gear and superstructures with the soft lines of the vessels that carried them. The attention to detail and the simple accuracy of the depictions are enhanced by the pen and ink techniques he has mastered.

It was this early work that caught the attention of people involved in the fishing community and outdoor media who would help Steve take his talents in the direction he was determined to go.

“There were three people I credit for changing the direction of my career, Pete Barrett, Gary Caputi and Greg Venturo,” said Goione. “They saw potential in my work that even I had not recognized and encouraged me to expand my horizons while helping me find markets for my talents.”

Steve became an illustrator for local fishing magazines and for books on fishing topics. His understanding of fishing and ability to accurately illustrate everything from trolling patterns to knots put him in demand. He created line art for tackle companies and began creating more pen and ink artworks that caught the interest of national magazines, tournament promoters and companies that specialized in manufacturing clothing adorned with fishing themes.

Steve was later befriended by Lee and Heather Maxwell from Pirates Cover Marina, host of the Pirates Cove Billfish Tournament, in North Carolina; Raul Miranda who managed the Bimini Big Game Club and put on the Bahamas Wahoo Championships and the Bacardi Billfish Tournament; and Ken and Debbie Kaufman of Canyon Gear International, who produced clothing featuring his original art.

He was soon in demand on the tournament and boat show circuit and his commissioned artworks and prints became the talk of the fishing community. The rest is history and the future has never been brighter for this gifted artist.

Steve’s travels on the tournament circuit have given him the opportunity to spend hours in the cockpits of some of the most famous tournament boats in the world where he finds inspiration for new works and expands his understanding of the fish and people who purse them.

About ten years ago his artwork featuring boats caught the attention of the management at Hatteras Yachts and spawned a relationship that continues today. They admired his work so much that they commissioned him to create an original painting of every new launch, which is given to the owner, in addition to creating artwork for their offices, posters and marketing programs. At major boat shows you can find Steve ensconced in the Hatteras display signing those posters, greeting owners, many of whom have become close friends and patrons, discussing new commissions for originals of boats and game fish. No one does it better.

His relationship with Hatteras led to a project that was so unique, so different than anything done before, that it has literally set off a firestorm of international media attention. Last year the management at Cummins/Mercruiser approached Steve with an idea—to adorn the entire hull of a specially powered 60’ Hatteras yacht with an original artwork using a transfer process called a wrap. Wraps have become the preferred method for applying sponsor’s names and special images on trucks and boats, usually freshwater bass boats and center consoles that compete in kingfish tournaments, but this was something that was above and beyond.

“I was given complete creative freedom to compose a scene to cover the boat,” Steve said. “The scene I envisioned and the early sketches I showed the designers at Image Monster, the company that manufactured the wrap, required them to develop new techniques for printing and application. I knew from the beginning exactly what I wanted to achieve, but I never dreamed the final product would fit my vision so completely.”

Goione created a 32-foot blue marlin that, when applied to the boat, would appear to be swimming out of the spray while the boat was underway, chasing a pair of mahi on the bow. The marlin’s belly touches the boat’s waterline and the head extends toward the bow, mouth open in anticipation of capturing one of the dolphin. The tail is gracefully raised above the gunwale and onto the sides of the house in a powerful stroke that evokes comparisons with the boat’s four Cummins diesel engines and Zeus pods. The artwork is so striking that the boat has assumed the identity of the marlin, while setting yet another milestone for marine art and the artist.

When he is not traveling to tournaments and boat shows or fishing, Steve spends his time creating in a studio attached to his family home in North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Terri, and their children.

To see more of Steve’s work go to his website www.stevegoione.com and to keep up with his schedule of appearances and blog check him out on Facebook. To contact him to commission an original call 910-686-0864 or email at stevegoione@msn.com.