Stan Gabelein
It’s been 30 years now since I first met Stan Gabelein and we became friends. At the time we were attending the same church and had a mutual friend in renowned wild life artist Libby Berry, who would go on to become Stan’s mentor and teacher in his own quest to become a great fine artist. I’d known Libby for at least a decade before I met Stan, and often marveled at the life-like detail she imbued into her art. How did she do that? As it turned out, divining the answer to that question was one of Stan’s passions too, and so he and Libby were destined for each other, in an artistic sense.
As I soon discovered, Stan’s other main passions in life were hunting and fishing, a fact that became obvious to me when I first visited the cabin he lived in out in the woods next to a pond on property he owned on south Whidbey Island. Trophies of his excursions in the outdoors adorned his walls; magnificent elk antlers here, black tail buck antlers there, interspersed with mounted game fish—truly the home of a man who loved and lived the outdoors. As Stan developed his painting chops under Libby’s tutelage, his wall collections became augmented by beautiful paintings, created by his own hand, of the wildlife and scenery he witnessed on his various hunting and fishing adventures throughout the American west. As I loved the outdoors too, especially fishing, everything I saw on Stan’s walls through the years resonated with me, the common reality of which formed much of the basis for our friendship.
king salmon
Based on his mementos, trophies and paintings, it’s obvious that Stan must have had some incredible experiences while hunting and fishing through the years. Though from time to time he would regale me with a tale or two, or share with me some elk or venison jerky or smoked salmon, for the most part I’ve been left to wonder about his adventures in the woods. I imagine the same is true for many others who know Stan. That being the case, I am happy to say that with the publication of the book you now hold in your hands, Stan’s first as an author, we need wonder no more.
The title of Stan’s book, “The Outdoorsman: Stories of a Hunting and Fishing Life,” pretty much says it all. From the book’s opening pages, telling of his youth on Whidbey Island and learning the ways of the wilds from his father, and on through to its end, Stan shares story after story of his adventures in pursuit of the big game of North America, across the states of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Likewise, he tells of fishing, from the bass of Banks Lake in eastern Washington, to catching pike and grayling in the Alaskan interior, salmon near Ketchikan, and extending to even the magnificent tarpon of the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way you’ll learn from Stan the trick to capturing the giant clam called “geoduck” (pronounced “gooeyduck”); knowledge I could have used as a kid, when I spent much effort trying to wrestle the huge clams from the sand on the Puget Sound beaches near my childhood home in south Seattle. You’ll also get a sense of the magnificent scenery Stan has witnessed during his travels, as well as the opportunity to learn from him some of the skills and technology of the master renaissance painters, imparted to him by his art mentor and teacher, Libby Berry.
All in all, as you’ll see from his book, Stan Gabelein has lived an adventurous life, and with his writing he has created a beautiful memoir of that life’s experiences as a hunter, fisherman and artist in the natural world; a world which he obviously loves. If you enjoy the outdoors too, as I do, the ways of the hunter and fisherman, then I think you will love Stan’s book.
You’ll find the proof in the stories…they speak for themselves.
And with that, I invite you to read on…
Mark Arnold
February 18, 2022
To purchase Stan’s book, “The Outdoorsman: Stories of a Hunting and Fishing Life” just click the link below:
