Art student wins award for fish paintings

Brother Swagler, a rising senior at Mountain Brook High School, recently placed first in Wildlife Forever’s 2014 State-Fish Art Contest for Alabama in the 10-12th grade category.

Brother, an AP art student in Susan Davis’ class, has been painting fish for several years. He typically uses graphite to draw a topographical map as a background and watercolors to depict various species of fish in creeks, streams, rivers, lakes and coastal areas where they are found.

His winning artwork for the 2014 State-Fish Art Contest depicted a largemouth bass on a map of Guntersville Lake.

All first-place winners were invited to the 16th Annual State-Fish Art Expo in August in Colombia, S.C. A diverse panel of judges selected art winners from a field of thousands in their state and grade category. 

Brother said his art allows him to express his love of fishing and the outdoors. All of the fish he paints are ones he has caught fishing with his father, uncle or friends, mostly on waters in and around Birmingham. 

He is the son of Rick and Susan Swagler and lives in Crestline.