Jim Arky
My interest in decoys and carving came in 1971 at my first duty station as a pilot at NAS Brunswick, Maine. While stationed there, I lived in nearby Freeport, known worldwide as the home of mail order giant L.L. Bean. Leon Leonwood Bean himself, the firm’s founder, was an avid sportsman who often went hunting with the company’s decoy supplier, George Soule.
It was my visits to Soule’s shop that really sparked my interest in carving decoys. After leaving Brunswick, I was assigned recruiting duty in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where I actually began carving decoys. I made many trips to the Eastern Shore of Maryland during that time which gave me a lasting appreciation for decoys of the Upper Chesapeake Bay. It is this Upper Bay style that I feel was the biggest influence on the decoys I make today. After retiring from the Navy in 1992 my wife Sue and I settled in Cushman, Arkansas, a rural community about a hundred miles north of Little Rock, where I specialize in carving diving ducks, especially Redheads, Canvasbacks and Bluebills. I carve primarily basswood and paint my hollow-carved decoys exclusively in oil paints.
The thick, slow drying oils only allow me to turn out 4-6 decoys a month, but they also allow me to very effectively comb paint and texture the finish on my birds. I think my preeners are my best pose and I believe I enjoy making canvasback decoys more than any other. I have had articles printed by two magazines about my decoys: Arkansas Life and Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine.
If interested you can see more of my work at my website; www.gunningtraditions.com If you have something specific in mind give me call at (870)-793-4005, or e-mail me at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it