Ep. 730 - Portrait of a Farm: Cameron McIntyre on Decoys, Paintings, and Inspiration - Ducks Unlimited Podcast

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Katie Burke (01:46):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited
podcast. I'm your host, KatieBurke. And today on the show,
have Cameron McIntyre, decoycarver and painter, and we are
here in his studio in Virginia.The

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Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited
podcast. I'm your host, KatieBurke. And today on the show,
I'm here with Cameron McIntyre.Welcome to the show, Cameron.
Thank you. So we are notobviously in the studio. This is
not the Ducks Unlimited studio.We are not there. So where are
we?
Where is this?

Cameron McIntyre (03:41):
Well, I guess, technically, this is a studio to
me. It's your

studio. Yes.

It's a pretty disorganized, messy one, to be
honest

with you. It's not a set up stage studio with,
like, weird knit knacks on

the back? No. Although it's cleaner than it's
been for several months, if youcan believe that.

Yeah. That's well, I mean, I've been in bunch of
these. I will say that yours is,you have, like, a bigger space.
I like so would you build thisdid you build this studio?

Yes.

Okay. So we are actually in Virginia. Where
would you say in Virginia weare, like, area wise? Because I
am not from here, obviously.

Well, we're on the Eastern Shore Of Virginia,
which are two counties that areseparate from the entire rest of
the state, and we are in the FarNorthwestern corner of the
Eastern Shore.

Okay.

We're about, you know, 15 miles or so from
Chincoteague and just south ofthe Maryland line.

Okay. So, I guess, just to kinda so I'm up here
because I went to Easton,obviously. We saw each other
there. Right. And I've done thisthis is my third year.
This is my third year to kindago to Easton to the festival and
then kinda visit a few of youguys. First year, I did Grayson
and Pete. Yep. Last year, I wentup to New Jersey and did Jamie

(04:58):
and George. And then this year,I'm down here with y'all.
So and I did Oliver Tootsyesterday. Nice. So it's been
really great. I like doing this,and I will hope to keep doing
this because there's so many ofyou guys out here. It's kinda
the nice part about this area.
So much history with decoycarving. And so you're not from
here, though.

Right.

You know? And I wanna say also before we get
into all this, you have anotherpodcast episode that we did a
lot of years ago, I think wereally it's one of my favorites,
so I have them rerelease it alot. Okay. Well, good. So if you
haven't listened to that, goback and listen to it because
you'll get a lot more like,we're not gonna do a whole lot
of background information.

(05:39):
So go to that one, kindaintroduce yourself to you as a
decoy carver. But you so yougrew up in South Carolina,
obviously. You come up here. Sowhy did you choose to come up
here? Like, what was speakingof, like, the heritage and
stuff, like, what was yourmotivation to move?

Right. Well, when I came up here for the
first time when I was a youngkid, you know, maybe I think I
was about 11 years old when Ifirst came to the Eastern Shore

on a

hunting trip. And now where we hunted in South
Carolina was this beautiful areacalled the Ace Basin, but it was
just this one particular areawhere you duck hunted because
there's loads of coastal marshdown there, but very little of
that marsh has any duck hunting.It's all you had to go to this

(06:26):
one place.

Yeah.

But when I first came to the Eastern Shore,
like, the entire Eastern Shore,whether you're on the seaside or
the bayside or up in Maryland,just it's it's just waterfowl.
You know, it's like a waterfowlparadise. And then, obviously, I
came to learn about all thecarvers past and present that
that live in this area. So thisis like the decoy capital of the

(06:51):
world, really.

Yeah.

So I I I just knew I was gonna gonna move
here. I just first time I sawit, I thought, you know, I'm
coming up here.

It's just a matter of time.

Right.

Alright. So this place, which I mean, you can see
the shop here, but you have yourhome and you have this whole,
you know, your whole area thatyou've built up here. It's very
Right. Idyllic. And so at whatpoint did you start kind of
working to get this, like, tothis setup that you have?
Like, how did that come about?And

Well, I you know, ever since I was in
probably the fourth grade, Ijust knew that one day I was
gonna have a farm. I mean,because I grew up in a in a
small house in a in a smallneighborhood. And so that was my
dream all these years. Ofcourse, you know, to buy a farm
takes money and blah blah blah.But but as I got more

(07:46):
established with my carving andthen I got married and the place
where we're living was great,but I just always wanted a farm,
and so I went on a mission totry to find a a farm to buy.

Okay. How far into your career were you at that
point?

I was about ten years. Okay. Real close to
ten years. Yep.

Yeah. That's interesting. So as someone in
which we talked about a littlebit before, but, like, this is
all you've ever done. Right?You've never done anything

else. This you know, when I was in high school,
I had, you know, some differentjobs here and there, but, you
know, my whole adult life sinceI was you know, since the day I
moved up here when I was 20years old, this is the only
thing that I've ever done for aliving.

Yeah. So how did you I think about so what were
you carving in before? Like, didyou did you have an idea of what
you wanted as a studio or as,like, a place that you wanted to
and even a home just
to be inspired by. Because, Imean, obviously, as a carver and
an artist, you're inspired bywhat's around you. Right. And
I've you know, I I particularlyhave always been subject to

(08:53):
inspiration. Yeah.
You know, I can I'm

just constantly inspired by things.
And when I moved up here, youknow, there was a certain sort
of early colonial architecturethat was similar to South
Carolina even though most of thehouses down there were much more
extravagant. But there was thesesimple little story and a half
Eastern Shore houses that I justfell in love with with the

(09:19):
dormer windows and the exposedchimneys. And, you know, I I
just thought, you know, if Ibuild a workshop or a studio, I
I kinda want it to look likethat. And then if I ever I
didn't know that I was gonnafind a house that I could
actually move, which is what Idid, but I thought, you know, if
we ever build a house, it wouldbe based on early colonial

(09:41):
architecture.

Moved your house?

We did. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know that.
And I would never ever do thatagain. That's my one,
contribution to society. And,and I can tell you why, you
know, Colonial Williamsburg hasan endowment from the
Rockefeller because it take itwould take a fortune to maintain
a house that was built in 1785like the one that I live in.

(10:05):
Yeah. It does have the originalsiding on it, which I've
maintained.
I mean, I have to paint thatthing about once every three and
a half years if you can believethat. Just, you know

but Yeah. Saltwater air.

But yeah. Yep. Saltwater air. And but the fact
that it's still all there ispretty remarkable. But, yes,
yeah, we we dismantleddismantled that house for the
most part and moved it about 14miles and rebuilt it and
restored it and added on to it,and now we get to maintain it.

Yeah. Now you get to it. Yeah. I'll also say,
like, y'all always have up herethis, like, it's not just a
home. Right?
Like, you have a home, and thenyou have this little building
where your studio you have abarn. Like, every all of these
little they're almost likelittle homestead type

Right.

Environments, which is very particular to this, I
feel like, up here. And you havethat here.

Yep. In New England, they they tended to
attach the buildings together,and then they would call it like
a door yard. It would have, youknow, the house and the a a a
breezeway connected to the barn,connected to the garage, and
that's all so that you don'thave to go outside in the
freezing cold and, you know,waist deep snow. But, yeah,

(11:18):
there's a lot of lot of littleoutbuildings associated with the
Virginia houses.

So did you build all of your outbuilding? No.

I didn't. I I move I have the oldest building
on my property is actually asmokehouse. It was built in
1750, and I keep some of mycarving wood in there. It was
supposed to be my wife's gardenshed, but it's my carving wood
storage shed.

Yeah. That's all that's all. But

yeah. There and then, you know, there's an
historian that that I got to befriends with. And along with the
outbuildings, the Eastern Shore,colonial architecture has all
these different types of fences,and and he would come over here
and see that I was working onthis style of fence and that
style of fence, and then hecalled it Cameron's Unfinished
Fence Museum.

Yeah. That that was very and I noticed well, the
when I went to Jamie's lastyear, his whole place is very

similar. Yeah.

Yeah.

Great place.

Yeah. And it's the same vibe, like, little all the
little outbuildings and well,you don't have horses. He has
horses. But I don't thinkthey're his horses, though. I
think they're someone else's.

Thankfully, I I've got lots of other things
that I do that I shouldn't do,but, thankfully, one of them is
not horses. Because I have agood friend of mine that has
horses and

They're like having boats. Do you have boats?

I do have lots of boats.

Yeah. And there there are lot of maintenance.
But no. I I grew up. We hadhorses and yeah.
They're a lot. It's differentwhen you have to, you know you
know, you feed your dog in yourhome. But when you have to feed
horses, you actually have to goto the horses and feed them

every day. Yep.

And they're usually not at your house. So they it's
a whole thing. And that was myjob when I got a license was I
had to go feed the horses.

Right. Well, I don't think I'll Don't do

that. That road. Oh, I I don't I don't think I
will. No. I love this area, andI just really wanna talk about
that because I know you'reinspired by your surroundings
and when you were going inchoosing, like, the home you
moved and the place you've been,like, what were how did you
choose a place to pick where youwere going to?
Because obviously, it'scontinued to be an inspiration

(13:19):
for you after. I mean, was onlyten years into your career.

Right. Well, I I I sort of delve into that in
my catalog for the show that I'mgetting ready to have. And this
farm where I live was not forsale. It was just a place that I
would ride by all the time on myway to go duck hunting. And I
just thought, boy, I love thatfarm.
It's got all this marsh. It'sgot these big open horizons,

(13:44):
which I love open spaces. And,you know, I didn't even know if
there was ducks here. I figured,you know, there there must be
because it's in a good area. Butso I contact I I didn't even
know who owned the farm or howmuch land was included on the
farm.
And so I went down to thecourthouse. You know, this is in

(14:05):
the days before,

you know Onyx

and Onyx and all that. Yep. Went down to the
courthouse, found the names ofthe farmers, two brothers that
actually owned all this land andcalled them up. And I'm sure
they thought I was crazy, butthey said, you know, we we don't
sell land. We we buy land.
You know, when farms come up forsale, we buy them, and they'd
never sold a piece of propertybefore. And it it's kinda crazy,

(14:31):
but I met with them and, youknow, I mean, it would I could
write a book about the day thatwe met and how the ducks started
flying and the geese startedflying and it started snowing.
And then they told me how muchthey wanted for it, which was
about five times more than I wasthinking they were gonna want
for it. But it all worked out. Ithey they sold it to me.

(14:54):
They financed it for me. Theybecame my friends. They became
my customers. They're myneighbors. And so all of that
ties into the fact that I justfeel like it was meant to be.
I mean, I feel like I was meantto live at this farm. Yeah. And
so, you know, one of the reasonsthat I haven't, you know, my

(15:15):
paintings that I do are almostexclusively right here on this
farm, especially for the lastten years or so. And, you know,
I just don't feel the need toreally go anywhere else. I I
walk around this farm day andnight.
You know, I'm in the woods herea lot hunting. I'm in the

(15:35):
marshes all the time hunting,and I haven't even I mean, I've
probably painted got between thestudies and and and all three or
400 paintings on this farm Yeah.Of this farm.

And And you do plein air. Right? Well Well, you
start play studies plein air?

Well, what I do, which it's taken me, you
know, a long time to to figureout what you know, you gotta
figure out what works for you.Yeah. Because we all have
different personalities and DNAand, you know, and and skills
that, you know, that we're goodat and some things that we're
not good at. And it what I'vearrived at is, you know, I

(16:14):
generally like to paint early inthe morning, late in the
evening, not always, but most ofthe time. And in order to
capture the colors that time ofday because, you know, they do
change so fast.
You have to work fast and youhave to work pretty small. So I
do what I call an oil studyOkay. And it it's really not

(16:39):
heavy on drawing

It'd be alright.

Or or maybe even composition, but I try to
capture the colors. Yeah.Because, you know, a photograph
or, you know, maybe a videowould do a better job, but that
time of day, you you just can'ttake a picture of that.
You know, maybe if you're Well,it won't come out. Right?

Like, yeah, it

doesn't You know, a photographer for
National Geographic maybe.

But won't get the color. It's just never gonna get
the color right.

Yeah. It can't get the and the colors, you
know, and and I'm I'm convinced,you know, everybody does see
colors differently Yeah. Anyway.Yeah. You know?
So no peep two people are gonnasee the exact same thing. Yeah.
And so, yeah, the studies areare have been a huge help for
me. So that's that's how I andwhat I do is I, you know, I

(17:27):
paint the study, I bring itback, and I just stick it on the
shelf and spend a lot of timelooking at it. Okay.
And then for the composition,because composition is something
that, you know, and I mean, I'mnot the first person to say
this. Whistler figured this out,you know, a hundred and fifty
years ago. The chance of youwalking out in nature and

(17:47):
finding a perfect composition isalmost nonexistent. You know,
you can and and that's one ofthe sort of stumbling blocks
with plein air painting is whenyou go out in nature, there's so
much information in front of youthat it's overwhelming. Right.
And it's hard to compose infront of nature. I've learned to

(18:08):
do it, you know. So you walk outand you you see a scene that
that you think for whateverreason resonates with you and
this is what I wanna paint, youknow, right here.

Okay.

And you look at the scene and you think,
okay. So what is it that Ireally love about this? And
could be, you know, this bank ofwoods and the way the light
catches those trees, and then itmay have some other trees in it.
And, you know, after a while,you can think, boy, this
painting would look a lot betterif that tree over there on the

(18:38):
far right was on the left or ifthose woods in the background
were a little closer or maybepart of it wasn't even there.
Yeah.
And so so that's how bringing itback to the studio bringing back
the study to the studio andlooking at it for a long time,
it it starts to dawn on youthat, you know, I can change

(19:02):
this around any way I want. Ican add a tree, take a tree out,
put some water in it, put amoon. I can do anything I want
to the scene, but having thecolors be true to the scene is
kinda what makes it believable.

And I would think, like, especially I was just
looking at them today, and wecan go into the paintings more,
but, like because I went and sawthem at they're at Guy and
Dieter right now. And just sothe audience knows what we're
talking about is you're having ashow at Gaye and Dieter, and
it's December 6, and it's is ityour first solo show?

No. I've actually had about four or five
other solo shows,

but this is by far

yeah. My first auction, but this is by far my
most comprehensive solo showbecause I I worked I I dedicated
my entire year to this show.Okay. So everything that I've
made this year with theexception of, like, two things
is in that show.

Yeah. He says plus 40 plus pieces. This

is Right. And I've been saving paintings up
for, like, five years. I mean,people have been calling me,
wanting me to sell paintings,and I've just, you know

Gotta wait till December 6.

I've just been saving them up. Yeah. And so

Okay. So So yeah. That's so that's what we're
referring to. And we went thismorning to get some shots of
this stuff so that they'll bethey'll what we'll talk about
will be in this video. So but Iwas looking at it.
Yeah. That's interesting thething. Didn't even think about
that you would change you couldchange this scene. So why I grew

(20:40):
up, I went to this artist. I wasreally fortunate to have an art
teacher in my little town of2,500 people.
And she was originally an equineartist. Like, that's what she
did kinda to get her start.That's where she made money, I
guess, really for the most part.And now she's mostly plein air.
But I I watched her, and Ididn't even think about that she

(21:03):
would I'm sure she did the samething.
She would take it. I mean, I'vesee I have big pieces of hers
that my parent my parents boughtme one of her farm. And now I
need to go back and look at itand see if she moved things.

Right. Yeah.

I'm sure she I'm

sure she did. I mean Yeah. Everybody Yeah. You
know, eventually, everybody hasto figure this out Yeah.
Because, you know, you can makeit better than reality.
I mean, you absolutely can.

But when I look at it because so when we were
young, we would every spring,she would make us go outside.
Like, she would make everyonelike, whatever we were working
on, we had to stop. And when shewas like, when it gets hot, you
can go back to it. But she wouldmake us go outside every
weekend. This is in theMississippi Delta, so and it was
our class was at, 5PM orsomething, which is right at a

(21:53):
well, you've been to Arkansas.
You know the skies you get inthe Delta, those pink and purple
cotton candy stuff. So we'dalways have to go outside and
paint and stuff. And whenever Ihave that painting, it's she
also had horses because she alsoyeah. It was equinars. So I just
remember I love it because itreminds me of sitting out there
and being forced to paint allthose scenes.

(22:15):
But it's hers, and obviously,it's much better than what I did
when I was 12. But

Yeah.

But, yeah, I think about it. I need to go back and
look at it and we'll see whatshe did there because it's funny
because the colors are the thingI love about it. She was a knife
painter, which you use brushes.Right? Like, you're all

I mean, I have used palette knife Yeah. Quite a
bit. I mean, I'm not saying I'mnot gonna use them again because
I probably will, but I mostlyuse brushes now.

Yeah. I can't. I am not a big fan of I mean, they're
nice for skies and big thingsthat like, your swats of things
you're doing because you can gofaster.

Right. But And I do things in layers. I mean,
I'm a That's a oil. Yeah. Layertype person.
I Yeah. Because one of thereasons I paint in so many
layers is because I'm not happywith the beginning stages, and I
always end up painting over itand painting over it and
painting over it. And

That's the beauty of oils.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

I guess I would be a really miserable
watercolorist.

Yeah. You can't change them as much. Oh, you'd
be throwing like, you talkedabout earlier, like, you have
all your throwaway heads behindyou. You'd be throwing away a
lot of water clothes.

I would. Yeah. Throwing away a

lot of oils. So well, my point was, when I was
thinking about that, you'retalking about it, the depth of
your color that I was looking attoday, it provides an a lot of
emotion to your work that Ireally appreciate. And I don't
really know. It's one of thosethings that you really I've
seen, like, your work online.I've seen pictures of it.

(23:45):
But when you're in person, youreally get to see it. It really
hits you a lot harder, like,when you come in.

Right. And and all all all art is that way. I
mean, it's Yeah. That's thepoint. It's rare that I've ever
seen a photograph of a paintingthat was better than the
painting was in person.
Oh, yeah. You know,particularly, you know, I went
to a an NC Wyeth exhibit once upin Maine, and I I walked in the
gallery and, you know, I wasjust going from painting to

(24:12):
painting. These are bigpaintings. And I kept looking up
at the ceiling, you know,wondering where this light was,
you know, that they were shiningon this painting because they
all just had this crazy glow.All of a sudden, I got these
chills down my spine because itwasn't the light.
It was the the guy's paint, youknow. His choice of color and

(24:36):
his layers, it just it was likethey were plugged in. Yeah. Was
amazing.

Yeah. That's cool. Well, see and talk about the
photographs of the things, like,in the catalog. Like, so Guy and
Deere has a little catalog theydid for you. And the one that I
was just, like, kinda floored bybecause I saw it now.
In the catalog, was like, oh,that's okay. I don't really I
mean, I know what he did herebecause I know your decoys, but
the new wood.

Oh, the brand new wood?

Yes. That thing is incredible. Like, in person, it
the photo does not do it justiceat all.

Yeah. You know what? I've been thinking of
doing something like thatseriously for probably twenty
years.

Yeah.

And how that came about was some of these
some of these hanging duck stilllife scenes that I've carved.
You know, in the beginning, Iwould do like a lot of other
people and just find an oldboard somewhere and mount my
duck on the old board, you know,like it was a piece of barn
siding or something. And then Istarted wanting to make my own

(25:40):
board because then I could makeit any color I wanted, and I
could sort of tweak it the way Iwanted it to be. And I would
spend so much time working onthat board. It was crazy.
Yeah. And then they would turnout you know, I mean, sometimes
I would think to myself, youknow, this board doesn't need
the ducks. It could stand alone,I think.

Yeah. It's

alright. Especially after looking at some
abstract expressionism. I mean,that's pretty much what that
board is. Yeah. And I'mthinking, you know, I could just
make a board and frame it with agold frame, and that is the
painting.
And and then the idea you know,the title for the one that I
have in the show is called brandnew wood because those are

(26:24):
boards that I bought from thehardware store

Yeah.

You know, like, two months ago. And if you
look at the back of it, which

Why should I did not look at the back of it?
Yeah.

Well, if you see the back of it, I mean, it
is literally brand new wood.

That's really great. Yeah. I mean, I saw that
when I saw it in the catalog, Iwas like, well, that makes sense
because I know, like, you havethis ability to antique decoys
like, make decoys look likethey're a 100 years old. And,
obvious they're not a 100 yearsold. You made them Right.
You know, a month ago or so.

And I and I would like to point out also
that I'm not necessarily youknow, I'm not making them look
old because I want them to lookold. No. Yeah. I'm I'm making
them that way because I thinkthat's beautiful. Yeah.
You know, the the textures andthe colors and and all the the
way all that stuff workstogether to me is, you know,

(27:18):
very sensual, if you will, andand beautiful and organic. And
so, you know, that's why I doit. And and I don't do it on
everything. No. But that's the,you know, that's the reason
behind it.

Yeah. No. I I yeah. And you see that when you look
at it too. It's I mean, when youhold those decoys, it's not so
much that, yeah, they look likewell, there's something about
decoys.
Like, you see, we just had theauction, obviously, you know,
and you're looking at the onessome of the ones that go for,
like, a ton of money or, like,in pristine condition.

Right.

But those aren't always my favorite because
there's something about the wearon a decoy

Absolutely. That is beautiful. No question.
Like, for instance, we'll takethe Ward brothers. I mean, if
someone offered me a mintcondition 36 Ward can or a mint
condition pinch breast pintailor one that's got a lot of you
know?
Yeah. For some reason to me, award just looks good with a lot

(28:19):
of wear on

it. Yeah.

And, you know, an Elmer Kroll does not. No. Or
a Purdue does not. But certainbirds, you know, the form of
them, you know, they don't evenneed paint. You know?
Yeah. A Gus Wilson does not evenneed paint. A a Dudley canvas
back doesn't need any paint.

Especially the form on Dudley canvas.

Certain verities, John Graham. I mean,
there's certain birds that aresimple enough, have enough
sculptural form. You know, theylook simple, but but there's
something about them that it'salmost like the less paint they
have, the more you canappreciate the the raw form.

Mhmm. We were talking yesterday with Tutsu. He
was mentioning people he carvedwith and stuff and learned from
and because he was surrounded byso many people. And for some
reason, Lord Tyler came up andsomeone had one that they just
bought off. And I was like,yeah.
I love them because they'rereally folksy and they're very
different, but the full and itwas really worn. I was

like Yep.

But you could see it a mile away. Like, you look
at a Lloyd Tyler and like, yeah.That's a Lloyd Tyler.

Yep.

Yeah. And I like I I like decoys that you can by
form, you can just point out whothat is. Mhmm. There's something
about being able to point out adecoy and say, that's disguise.

Right. And some, you know, you once you
study this long enough, you canpretty much do that with almost
everybody, but there's certainlypeople whose work is more prone
to, you know, just sort of lendsitself to that instant
recognition.

They have very much a signature of their own.

Yeah. Right.

Speaking of the decoys, I wanna talk about the
ones that you talking about onesthat don't paint. The two
standing.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. So I need you to talk about these. We'll put
up a picture of them, but theyhave the iron feet and the two
standing. They're not painted.

Yep.

That's so different from anything you've ever done.
And I when I walked in, I waslike, I mean, I could tell it
was yours, but was like, this isway off what I've seen. So I was
really interested on what gotyou there.

Once again, that's another idea that I've
had in my mind for a long longtime. And I just got the idea
you know, I have some woodthat's really not suitable.
Maybe it's got a lot of knots init or cracks, and it just isn't
really suitable for a fancy, youknow Yeah. More refined decoy.

(30:44):
And I thought, you know, I'mgonna take some of that wood and
just make some weathered ducksthat could be that someone could
put out on their screened inporch or on their back deck, and
it doesn't matter if they getwet or, you know, snowed on or
whatever.
And I'm gonna go ahead and makethem kinda have the patina that

(31:04):
I think they should have. Andthen if, you know, if they
develop their own down the road,that's fine. So I had a friend
of mine cast some bronze feetfor those, and I've been
thinking I was gonna make awhole flock of them, like six or
eight of them, but I didn't getthe feed in time. I just didn't

(31:24):
it didn't work out that I couldmake a whole flock, but I I made
a pair. You know, I I would saythere's a little bit of Ira
Hudson influence in thembecause, you know, he did make
some standing ducks, but I

in no way has The has little Ira Hudson wing vibe.

Yeah. But in no way was I trying to copy Ira
Hudson Yeah.
Or anyone else. And No. They'revery unique.
Yeah. I just I thought they, youknow, they turned out I remember
John Dieter showed me a GusWilson, great blue heron that he
had in his gallery a coupleyears ago.
And when he as soon
as he showed it to me, I said,that's the patina right there

(31:58):
that I want on my porch duct.But I I don't Your porch ducks.
I think I missed probably didn'tquite get it. But, anyway, I I
do like the patina

of this. I think you might I think you might be
the first person to make porchducks.

Yep. I probably am.

Yeah. Except maybe I mean, like, probably, like,
people who do bronzes, butthat's different. That's a whole
different situation. There youknow, a

lot of the old time carvers, they made all
sorts of I mean, some of themmade doorstops and paperweights
and

Yard signs. Right. Yep. Yeah. A lot there's a lot
of those.

Yeah.

Though I loved about when I came in, they're so
unique and kind of off whatyou've done. So I was really
interested to hear, like, whatthe inspiration was behind
those. And I bet you got getchance to do more of them in the
future after this.

That's good because I have a lot of second
rate wood that I need to

It's a good place for

find a way to use it.

Yeah. Is that why you use second rate wood?
Because you knew they would beoutside and they would, like
Yes. Have a little more. Yeah.
Right.

K. I have a lot of first rate wood too, but
I I save that for, you know,pintails and geese and

things like that. Hanging ducks that you do.

Yeah. Those definitely require first rate
wood.

Let's go to a quick break, and then I have a
question about that that wetalked about. I guess I was,
like, in Chicago one year, but Iwanna kinda talk about a little
bit on the show. So we'll comeright back. Okay.

VO (33:23):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan and Bird DogWhiskey after these messages.

Welcome back. We're here with Cameron McIntyre, De
Quik Harbour. And the question Iwanted to ask is I remember I
don't know if this was it'sprobably two Chicago shows ago
when you did the huge rig, Andwe had talked you know, I had
lots of questions. I'm sureeverybody had lots of questions
about that.

You mean the hanging piece?

Yeah. The big hanging piece with a full rig on
it. Right. And you do these alot of them, like, are one
pieces. They're like, you know,the duck is one piece or things
like that.
Yeah. So when you're doing theserigs, I wanna kinda talk a
little bit about method of it,like, because it's complicated.
Because some of these, you know,when you're doing a decoy like
we have, you know, the onessitting around here, like,

(36:01):
you're getting to go, like, youknow, with the grain, like, but
with those hanging ones, youhave to go because the wing
kinda hangs open or you'regetting a underside. You're
having to go against the grain.And I'm sure it's extremely
stressful when you're working ona piece that big.
So I can you talk a little bitabout what that's like when you
go into, like, planning to carvesomething like that?

Sure. Well, first of all, you know, to make
one of those is is fairlydifficult. Yeah. But
compositionally, it's a piece ofcake because it's one bird, and
you don't have to worry abouthow the second bird is gonna
affect the composition. So I'vemade a few just with one duck.
Then when you add that secondduck, I'd say it gets, you know,

(36:45):
50% more difficult. And then assoon as you go to that third
duck, it gets about 250% moredifficult. And then the more
ducks you add beyond that, itthe the complexity of it in in
both the composition and allthese other factors, it gets
exponentially more difficult.

Not only do you have the individual duck hanging
like, it's a it's a dead hang.So just to let you think. So you
have that individual duckhanging, and it has to look
dead, obviously. But it'sinteracting with the second duck
and then the third duck. And sothey're all gravity is in play.

Gravity is in play. And then the thing that
that you gotta understand isthat these things are made out
of wood. Yeah. Now clay, youknow, would I'm not taking
anything away from someone whomakes something out of clay.
But, you know, clay, when itcomes time to mesh them
together, if you wanna changesomething, you just bend it this
way or that.

You know It's a softer material. Right.

But with wood, you have to figure all of that
out as much as you can ahead oftime because, you know, it's
like the point of no return. Imean, once you once you lock
these two together and you gottafigure out how that third bird
is affected by gravity becauseit not only does it have to look
good from the front, it has tolook good from each side.

It is the three d piece. Yeah.

And, you know, I was talking with Eddie Wozni
at the show, and he said, yeah.Just when you think no one's
gonna see the back of it,somebody will hang it like on a
beam in their house where youcan walk all the way around it.
And that's that's true. So, youknow, you have to, yeah, you
have to really, really thinkahead. And, you know, for the
most part, wood is designed tobe carved with the grain.

(38:26):
Yep. But on those, particularlyback behind, you know, you got
open wings and thighs coming outand, you know, and if it's all
one piece of wood, I mean, thereis no way to get down in there
and carve with the grain. Itjust isn't possible. So, yeah,
when I started to make the moreand more of those that I made, I

(38:48):
had to like, halfway throughsome of them, I've had to stop
and order, you know, doglegchisels and Oh, yeah. Back bent,
you know, front you know, leftbent, right bent, all these
different tools, even modifysome of them my own Yeah.
So that I could get in some ofthese places.

Yeah. And you have one in the show. Right? You have
the it's black ducks.

I do. I have two two black ducks

Yeah. Hanging. But that one yeah. I think that one
in the teal you did, the greenwing teal. Is it blue green wing
teal?
There yeah. It's a whole rig ofgreen wing. I think that's the
other one you did.

Yeah. Yeah. It's impressive. Yeah. The the
green wing teal that areactually out in the Peoria
Riverfront Museum now, those areteal, and that was carved not
entirely from one piece of wood,but I would say, you know, about
85 of that is one piece of wood.
Oh, wow. And that really wascomplicated. I mean, for twenty

(39:40):
some years, I feel like I'veworked almost a 100% on
commission. Yeah. And I don'tshow I mean, I don't do social
media.
I don't update my website. Soeverything that I make just goes
out. You know, I box it up, shipit off, and the only person that
sees it is me and the personthat bought it. So there's a
whole bunch of my work out therethat no one's ever seen.

Yep. Yeah. I guess so. Yeah.

But the commission pieces, it seems like
or, I mean, the, you know, thethe dead hanging duck scenes,
you know, most of those I'mdelivering to a show. Yeah. And
so people get to see them. ButI, you know, I haven't I might
make one a year, one every twoyears, something like that. So I
I haven't been really crankingthem out, and it's not the type

(40:22):
of thing that I'd wanna have acomplete steady diet of.
You know?

I mean, yes. On one hand, it's it's super creative.
It's a puzzle, honestly, thatyou have to put together. Right?
Like, you're having to figureout

Yeah. There's there's a lot, you know, a lot
More more engineering involved.Than a than a decoy.

Yeah. Whereas with, yeah, a decoy and painting,
you're getting to be a littlemore interpretive and stuff.
Like, what's what you want? Youcan put more feel into it. For
the exhibit, how many paintingsand how versus how many decoys
are like, what's the what arethe pieces consistent?

I I would have to

Or like a percentage.

Add it up. I I think there's about I'm I'm
thinking there's about 20paintings and about 25 carvings.

Okay.

Roughly.

Yeah. And then in there for the decoys, are there
any so is everything new, or didyou pull stuff that you already
had or things from your personalcollection? Is it all?

Well, I'd say about 95% of it are things that
I made this year. Okay. And Idid end up taking a pair of my
personal rig mallards, which arekinda near and dear to my heart
because I've I've used them allover the place and, you know,
and I I tend to kinda getattached to them. But but I've

(41:37):
had so many different peoplewant to know if I would sell a
pair of those, and I've alwayssaid no. And I just thought, you
know, I'm gonna take a pair ofthose out.
And I I took what I considerprobably the best ones,
honestly, and put put those inthe show. I made those back in
2016, I think, and they havebeen god. I used those in South

(42:00):
Carolina, North Carolina,Virginia, Maryland, Illinois,
Arkansas, Mississippi, NorthDakota, Montana, Saskatchewan.
So, yeah, I've they've traveledaround. Yeah.
And they're and they've got thewear and tear to prove it. Yeah.

They've seen a lot of ducks. They've also been in
the museum. Right.

Yeah. And yeah. When

Oh, it was a while ago. Yeah. Early early days.

Quite a quite a while ago.

Yep. Unless that I I don't think it was that long
after if you made them in 2016,it wasn't that long after you
made them because Yeah. I think

was about a year later or

VO (42:35):
so.

Because that was, like, the first exhibit I think
I put together.

Right.

We opened and Paul Tudor Jones put some of his
stuff when we first openedbecause, honestly, he just used
this as, like, storage while hewas building a house. So he
Smart guy. Yeah. And then hetook it when the the mouse was
ready, and those would thosecases, like, was you and George
and Marty. Yeah.
And that was the first thingthat I put together. I guess
that was the fur my first thingI curated. Wow. Oh my

god. That's pretty nice.

I never even thought about that. But, yeah,
that would've been the firstthing I put together. But, yeah,
I remember that because you werenot it it was like I asked you
right before duck season, andyou were like, ah.

Yeah. Because I you know, how a carpenter's
house is never finished and amechanic's car is never fixed
and all well, it it took meforever to finally build up my
own personal rig of decoys.Yeah. And as a matter of fact,
there's a pintail here that Imade this. I bet you I made that
thirty years ago for myself tohunt with, and here it is, you

(43:39):
know, all these years later, andit's never been finished.

And never made the cut? Yeah.

So Poor thing.

So do you use like, since let's talk about that a
little bit because you have allthese heads behind you here, and
you have this one. So you'rekeeping them, obviously. I mean,
some of them.

Some of them. Yep. Some of them.

So what's the what's the method behind that?

The method behind

The the wanting to keep stuff and Well that that
you might necessarily

ones that I that I hunt with. So, I mean, I
made those for myself to huntwith.

No. But the ones obviously that you didn't
finish. Like, why The ones

I didn't finish. I mean, that one's
worthy to me of being finished.Everybody that comes over and
sees this is, man, you shouldpaint that, which I I can't
really explain it. I'm I'msorry.

Well, like, what about, like, the heads? Like,
you Yeah. The throwaway heads.Yeah. I've got

a bunch of unfinished or well, like,
they're not unfinished. They'rereject heads. Yeah. For one
reason or another, they justdidn't. Something about them
wasn't up to par, but they'retoo good to too good to throw
away, but not good enough to

So why not throw them away?

I mean, I've given away several of them, but
sometimes I'll I'll see enoughof a spark in one of them. I'll
remember what my originalintention was. Yeah. And then I
can use that reject head and fixall the things about it in a new
carving Okay. That went wrong onthe

Yeah. Yeah. No. That makes sense. I don't that's
an I don't know.
Do you think other carvers isthat unusual to you that you use
that? Or I think I've neverheard of anyone.

Well, I think at this stage, you know, I mean,
you would think that I'd be goodenough at this by now to not
have rejects, but I I still do.You know, same way with my
paintings. I guess, in theory, Ishould be better than I am by
now. But but I don't have aproblem with it. You know?
If if something's not notworking out, I just Throw it. I

(45:33):
don't I don't I don't want myname on it.

Yeah. And I guess was it also, like because you
you mentioned it that, like, youhave, like, a spark that wants
to that you want to dosomething. So, like, in that
process, is it also something,like, it's not going with, like,
what you were imagining or howyou were thinking it would work?
Like, is Yeah.

That that happens a fair amount. You know,
I'll I'll stand up real quickand
grab a few drawings here.

Yeah. Hold on. A few A few drawings. A few
drawings.

But yeah. So, anyway, these these are some of
my drawings, and I'll just thisis very informal.

But Well, that's why we're here.

Yeah. I'll just We like it. Start, you
know, drawing some crazysketches of of things and, you
know, some of them I'll I'lllike them. Some of them I won't.
But this I think this Brandthere ended up being part of the
inspiration for one that's in myshow.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, there's a kind of an
earlier version of it, and someof these I I like. Some of them
I don't like. You know, I findquotes all the time. Here's one
by Andrew Wyeth who says it'snot good to show too much
artistic ability.
You have to fight technique, notlet it take over. Yeah. You

(46:54):
know? You don't wanna kinda bean automation of yourself after
a while.

Yeah. That's what I was kinda getting from you when
you were talking about yeah.Like, it

does apply. You know, drawings and, you
know, I'll just get an idea, andI'll draw one version of it and
like some things, not like otherthings. And then finally, this
is kind of the last version,which I like better than the
other two. And, you know, I justI sketch on pieces of notebook
paper, whatever just happens tobe laying around. And so, you

(47:25):
know, that's how the ideas kindakinda come to me.
Yeah. These are some huntingdecoys I was drawing. I was
thinking of some sort of

Feeders.

Surface feeders and maybe some that even
had their heads mostlyunderwater. Yeah. And I just I
have, you know, thousands ofthese things.

And do you keep most of it?

Yeah. I That's cool. There's just an idea. I
was trying to work out thecomposition of some I think this
was Mike's bird before I evereven started on. I was just
drawing this up in my mind.
Yeah.

You

know, how are five or six birds gonna work on
a plaque? Yeah. There's ahunting style pintail I was
gonna make at some point. So,yeah, I just I've got sketches
everywhere.

Well, yeah. It's interesting because it's that's
one of the great things about,like, getting to come and be in
your studio and other Carverstudios. We get to kinda have
that inside look.

Right.

So let's go back to the show a little bit because I
do wanna talk a little bit more.We talked some about your
paintings before, but let's talka little bit more about kinda
some of the ones that are inthere. Yep. Do you have any in
particular that you would liketo kinda talk to about the story
behind or anything like that?Like, I people are familiar with
your decoys.

(48:45):
Like, that Yep. That's whatyou're known for. But let's
kinda I kinda wanna highlight alittle bit, especially since we
have the footage Yeah. Fromearlier, some of these paintings
that you've done.

Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, every painting in
that show was inspired by livinghere at the farm.

Yep. Well, is it the name of the exhibit, like,
the farm? Is that

what it Portrait of a Farm.

Portrait of a Farm. Yep. Yeah. Thank you.

And, you know, some of them are are things that
I see just looking out mywindow. And I've I've I've found
that if you if you stay in oneplace long enough and look at it
all the time, that you'll startto see some some possibilities
and some beauty that you thatthat you just won't see.

Well, it changes.

Yeah. It changes and

Things grow. Things die. Things change.

Yeah. And one reason that I would in my my
kinda my art teacher that Ifirst studied with William
McCullough down in SouthCarolina, he he cautioned me
about plein air painting,especially contests. He said,
you know, you you should neverdo that. He said that is not
what painting is about. And I'mnot I mean, I've seen some

(49:53):
brilliant plein air paintersthat can go to a place that
they've never been before andsit down and paint something
beautiful.
But for me, I have to build itup in my mind for a long time
before I can do anythingworthwhile with it. And so he
kinda cautioned me. You know, hesaid, you know, don't do that.

(50:15):
And and I I agree with him. Youknow?
So so I would never enter aplein air painting contest. I,
you know, just don't that's justnot not me. Yeah. But but having
said that, a lot of mypaintings, especially the
smaller ones, they are what youwould consider plein air
paintings. I mean, I've taken myeasel out in the field and set

(50:37):
up and and painted them out inthe marsh or, you know, in the
woods.
And almost all of them, I wouldsay, without a doubt, probably
every single one of them, I haveworked on them in the studio.
You know, the next day, I seethings that I could change a
little bit. So, I mean, it's Ihave reworked them a little bit.

(50:58):
Yeah. The bigger paintings, theystart from a small sketch, and
then some of those, I might workon them for two years just
changing you know, addingthings, taking things away.
And, yeah, and there is a apainting in the show. It's
called Russ's Cedar. And andwhat that painting I got to be

(51:20):
good friends with a fantasticpainter named Russell Chatham,
and he was from Montana. And Imet him back in, god, I think
maybe 2008 or '9, and we sort ofI don't know. I I mean, we kinda
hit it off.
Even on that very first visit,he gave me a painting that he
had painted back in 1969 on theon a on the Piazzoni Ranch in

(51:45):
California. But after we got tobe friends and he would send me
letters and we'd write back andforth, he I sent him some
pictures of my farm one time,and one of them was a cedar tree
that's in my front yard. And hepainted a beautiful painting of
that cedar tree, and I think itwas called winter juniper. And

(52:07):
it was a snow scene, and I wouldhave loved to have had it, but
it was way, way out of my pricerange. But I was just I was so
honored that he, you know,painted a tree that's in my
front yard Yeah.
That later on, I painted thatsame tree in the springtime kind
of on a misty morning. And as atribute to him, I I called it

(52:31):
Russ's Cedar.

So Did you so I'm guessing how did you meet him?
Did you

I went out to Adele and I went out to see
Yellowstone National Park, and Iknew he was living in the area
there. And I contacted him aheadof time and told him we were
coming out there. And he said,sure, you know, stop by. And,
you know, I told him I waspainting and, you know, that I'd
seen his paintings in a book andthey I just was blown away by

(53:00):
them. And, anyway, went went byto see him and he spent the
whole day with us.
He took us to his house. He wasyou know, took us in the
bedroom. He was pulling hugepaintings out under from under
the bed, taking them out on theporch, dusting them off. He'd
he'd you know, I was driving inin this rental car, and he'd
say, you know, do you have timeto, you know, to go? I said,

(53:22):
I've got all the time in theworld.
So he drove us around, show uswhere he painted different
landscapes, and took us to hisprinting. He he had a a printing
company at that point and wentin there, and he gave me all
sorts of books and papers he'dwritten, just all sorts of
things. And and and then in2015, he was back in California,

(53:48):
and I was incredibly fortunatethat he invited me to
California, and I flew outthere. That was the first time
I'd ever been to California. AndI stayed with him for a week,
just the two of us, and we'd getup every morning and go to his
studio, and he would show meeverything there I ever wanted
to know about painting and andthen some.

Yeah. That's amazing.

It was amazing. And and one of the
incredible things is we werethere one day and I said I said,
hey, Russ. I said, you know,I've never seen the Pacific
Ocean. I said, would would it bepossible to go down there? You
know?
I said, I can go by myself. Youknow? He said, oh, no. No. He
says, hop in the in the van, andwe'll we'll go down there.
So he drove me down there, andon the way, he pointed out lots

(54:34):
of places where he had painted.And when we got there, I I said,
do you mind if I just run downon the beach? I'm gonna dip my
dip my toe in the in the oceanjust to say I've done it. So I I
I I did that. And about two orthree months after I got home,
FedEx pulls up with his bigwooden crate, and he had painted

(54:55):
a a painting of the PacificOcean right there where I dipped
my toe in the water and and gavethat to me as a gift, which I
just couldn't believe

it. Yeah. That's super special. Yeah. That's
amazing.

And then the the very last part of the story
that I think is also incrediblymeans a lot to me is when he was
getting really close to the endof his life, he sent an email
and asked me he said that he wasgetting ready to take that boat
across the big water to see therest of his friends and family,

(55:29):
and he asked me if I would sendhim a few canvas backed ducks to
eat because he wanted to havethat as his last meal. Oh,
that's So I sent him thoseducks, put them in a cooler,
and, you know, like, overnightedthem, and that was the last I
ever heard from him.

That's beautiful. So that was

just I'm very fortunate to Yeah. To meet
someone like that.

Yeah. That's really beautiful. It's funny that the
place like, people ask me allthe time about like, they think
my job is cool Right. Because Iget to do this. I'm like, well,
that's it's not the decoys andthe art and stuff that makes my
job cool.
It's the people that I get tomeet. I get to meet so many
really neat people through thisjob.

Right. Yeah. I'm sure you do. And and, you
know, it's obviously the peoplethat made the decoys and the
art. Yeah.
And some of those old guys, wecan never know know them, so
they do live on through theirart.

Yes. And that's so special to be able to, like,
have that piece of them andstuff. Yeah. No. That's great.
I love that. Thank you

for sharing. Yeah. That was, one of the
highlights of my life, without adoubt.

Is there any other thing that we wanna mention
before we go about the show oranything? Or do you

wanna end there? Any other questions you
have?

I haven't planning it, but we we would go on
forever. Yep. So we probably wecould end it right there. But,
yeah, thank you for doing thisand thank you for sharing. I
look forward to seeing, whatthey I bet those, your rig pair
go for more than you thinkthey're gonna.

Well, that's all out of my control.

We'll find out. But, yeah, I can't wait to see
it. I was really excited tofinally get to see your
paintings in person, so that wasa highlight for this trip. So

Well, great. I hope I hope they lived up to
your expectations.

And more. Great. So I appreciate. Thanks, Cameron,
for doing this with me. Sure.
Thank you, Cameron, for comingon the show. Thanks to our
producer, Chris Isaac, andthanks to you, our listener, for
doing wetlands and waterfowlconservation.

VO (57:22):
Thank you for listening to the DU podcast sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan, the officialperformance dog food of Ducks
Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan,always advancing. Also proudly
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(57:44):
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Ep. 730 - Portrait of a Farm: Cameron McIntyre on Decoys, Paintings, and Inspiration

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 730 - Portrait of a Farm: Cameron McIntyre on Decoys, Paintings, and Inspiration