June "What's on your Workbench?"

John Lawrence

John Lawrence

Active member
Time to start the summer!

Last summer I had the opportunity to talk to a fellow named Gene Kangas. He's written several books on antique decoys and folk art. In talking about what I do and in generalizations about what we do as a whole as decoy makers He brought up a point that has stuck with me. That point is that what we do is too safe, not enough risk. So being one who isn't afraid of controversy I started thinking about how to take more risks in what I do. I thought a lot about "comfort zones", and more importantly had I slipped into a comfort zone with my shapes and paint?

To tell you the truth the more I thought about it the more I felt I had. As a result in the last year I expended a lot of effort into the process of change. Pushing for new shapes and especially with my paint. One type of paint style that I have been experimenting with is Impasto. If you aren't familiar with that term it refers to using thick applications of paint to imply texture and depth. Much of the paint on my World Rig was done in that style although a little too subtle to see, more if you were to handle them.

You know I've found this type of paint lots of fun, and I like the effect. The hens that I have been working on are painted in Impasto and what I'm finding is that I'm getting more bold as the more I use the technique. The photos of the hen gadwall I put up two weeks ago were some pretty thick applications of paint. As it has cured out the ridges and valleys in the paint have added a lot of depth and some interesting texture I think. To me its very rewarding to have someone pick up and hold one of my decoys and to see their look when they like it. I believe that a really good decoy is not only pleasing to the eye but also a tactile sensation wherein the sense of touch adds to the overall experience.

This is that hen gadwall almost done. I have a few little darker details to add and then it will be on to something else.

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This is a hollow pine decoy with a basswood head and Van Dykes eyes. painted in oils of course.
 
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At the same time I've been working on that hen shoveler. I carved it to have both wings exposed so that I could have some fun playing around with the colors in the speculum and the blue gray frontal wing. I painted the greens, blacks and grays in and let the decoy sit for a week or so while my attention was on other birds. I went back into the speculum and added a glaze of a dark blue-green. And just on a whim used some of the green on the ends of the primaries in a very thin and soft glaze. With the thought of risk taking in my mind I took some of the blue-green and glazed it into the "elbow" area of the wing. Not even close to being "anatomically right" but I like the way it looks.

I painted the back and tertials in that Impasto style and was able to get a little freer than on the gadwall, part of the learning process I guess. There are many ridges and drifts in the paint and I think it adds to the overall look. One thing that I wanted to do was keep the whole color scheme dark on this decoy. I know that a hen shoveler is probably somewhat more grayish brown but I'm looking for something different than "decoy Karaoke". What I mean by that is that I don't want to fall into that trap of hyper realism and make my work look the same as too many other's.

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Hollowed pine and oils once again.

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I have lots of other pieces in the works by the way. Here are a couple. The first is the drake gadwall to match with my hen. I've got some really different ideas as to where I'm going to go with his paint. Hollowed pine.

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And this is a piece of New Jersey cedar that a friend gave me at Westlake. I'm making a pair of wigeon from it and this is the drake just about ready to hollow and sand.

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So this is what I have to show on this first day of June 2011. As I'm sure you can see my theme this month is change and risk taking.

What's your's and What's on your Workbench this month?
 
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Nothing but painting for June... My least favorite part of decoy making.

These were some old VERY brittle LL Beans that have been redoweled, patched, had thier rear ends strengthened, and sealed and will be ready for re-paint in a week or so after I am sure everything is nice and dry. The plan is to keep them pretty close to original style of paint.
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I have these 5 fronds done and ready for paint. I am not sure how they will be painted yet but I think I will leave them simple and work on blending. At least that is the current plan...
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These 9 decoys sucked up about 1.25 gallons of sealer (a 50/50 mix of spar & mineral spirits) The Beans probably tripled in weight but are slowly losing it as they cure.
 
Nice work this month, frond look nice and I like MLbob's wigeon in progress too!

Just finished up these few............one old - one new...........





 
Great birds, Jode. I always enjoy a visit to your website to look around.

Hank,
You have the makings of a nice frond rig for next season! How do you plan to weight & rig them?
 
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Great works folks! Isn't it interesting how we all approach the subject matter differently, yet appreciate others take on the theme...


John- As always thanks for making us think a little. The challenge to take more risk is spot on.


Hank - Great looking rig. The volume of birds you are putting out will really move you ahead. I also thought the shots of your fronds on the water showed how good a decoy the really make.
 
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Finished these up in the last few days. Hollow cedar,Schoepfer eyes, Jansens paint. Finally started using the glazing medium...I'm pleased with it. Could use some work on the head color and feather layout on the blue winged teal. Blue winged teal hen....Scoter hen.
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fitting in with jon's post, I firmly beleive in experimenting. During my time in Maryland I started collecting upper bay decoys amd really appreciated the work of some of the early carvers(pre 1900) like of John Holly, john Graham, and especially Ben Dye. Their decoys weren't lifelike but fooled thousands and thousands of birds. Here is my experiementing with two older styles of decoys that I have admired and I will be incorporating some of the features in my future decoys. These are balsa with white cedar heads, part of a rig of all balsa birds I working on to use out here. Bird on the left is influenced by the st. Clair Flats style and the 2 on right or influenced by ben dye.

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Mike - That is one sweet woody!

Attending Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, I developed a love for the outdoors of the great State of Michigan. Michigan has a great heritage of decoy carvers. Some of my Michigan decoy carving heroes were Ben Schmidt, Miles Pirnie, Ferdinand Bach and Jim Kelson. I got to personally know Walt Snow and am thankful for that. These were great men and excellent outdoorsmen. I just finished carving 6 hollow white cedar redheads. I can see some Schmidt and Pirnie in these decoys. Poured the lead in them tonight. They will become part of my big water layout rig. Can't wait to hunt them...
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"Hunt your decoys. It's a crying shame to waste all that beauty and talent sitting on a shelf..."
 
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