Born in 1982 in Richmond Virginia. I was introduced to fishing by my father and uncles at a young age. Growing up in Virginia, I primarily focused on smallmouth bass and trout that reside in the rivers and streams that flow down the Blue ridge mountains. In my teen years I moved to Missouri and developed a passion for largemouth bass in the Lake of the Ozarks. Like most boys, I grew older and my childhood passions became distant, as my interest changed.

After highschool , ] I moved around a little and ended up in Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Miami Fl in 2007. After graduating 2 years later, I started work in fine dining restaurants on South Beach like Red Steakhouse, Scarpetta, and The Forge. Also during this time I was introduced to peacock bass fishing and my childhood passion was reignited. As the years past I became a pretty good angler and gained quite a presence in the fishing community and social media. I also had developed my skills in the Kitchen as well and moved up in the ranks to where I was running a kitchen. It was now 2016 and I had a child on the way and working 70 hours a week …

While developing my skills in cooking and fishing, I also developed a skill that was counterproductive. I had become a full blown functional alcoholic and drug addict…Fast forward, once my daughter was born, her mother had enough, and moved to Massachusetts with our baby. I was crushed and became uncontrollable. Within 3months I was in a rehab facility.

While in rehab I discovered art… I enjoyed drawing when I was young, and I was pretty good, but I never did anything with it. This was reintroduction to it. I notice how therapeutic art was… Hours would go by in an instant. No need to numb my self with substances. My thoughts were positive while painting, I could process thoughts in a healthy way. The since of accomplishment from creating a vision in my mind to a tangible thing was fulfilling. I realized this is what I should be doing.

Once I was out of rehab my focus was getting my family back!! The only way that was happening was if I stayed sober, so I left the culinary industry and stayed home and painted. The focus was not to make money as much as it was to stay sober and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle. Since I already had the following of the fishing community I decided to pivot and focus on South Florida gamefish as my subjects to paint.

Through the last 5 or so years I have developed my style which is really just a combination of a dozen or so of my favorite fishing artist such as David Danforth and Eric Estrada. I’ve turned my sober coping mechanism into a business. And more importantly I got my family back and I get to be a full time artist and Father!! Art literally saved my life!

When I’m not painting or doing daddy duties, I now am a flats guy!! I love me some bonefish and permit and I’m lucky to live in the land of the giants!!! Nothing gets me going like approaching tailing fish in glass morning flats under a rising Miami sun! I am blessed to get to create, live my best life sober, and be a present father for my little girl. Much like the fishing world, the art world has welcomed me with open arms!! I have had so much support from people who have followed my journey!! I am blessed for a second chance and thank god for giving it to me!!

BENTLEY