Tuckerton, New Jersey Seaport Holds First Fish Decoy Class
Sponsored by New Jersey’s Tuckerton Seaport, I was excited to present the first ever working fish decoy class at the Seaport on February 21 and 28, 2004. Tuckerton Seaport is a re-creation of a working sea village from the past, and provided us with a great atmosphere and scenic venue to introduce seven students to the art of working fish decoys. This coastal town is better known for duck decoys, so this class was an interesting change for some of the students who had previously taken classes in duck and shorebird carving.
The class consisted of two six hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays, the plan being to finish building and weighting the decoy the first day and spend the second session painting the decoy. Our project for the class was a seven inch Brown Trout, a rather ambitious undertaking since only one of the students had ever carved a fish decoy, and five of them had never carved a fish. Needless to say they made the instructor work hard! It took a bit of overtime during session one to insure that all seven decoys were assembled and swimming. To the delight of all, we had seven very good swimming decoys at the end of the day. I’m not sure who was prouder, the students or me.
On day two we painted, using acrylic paints and brushes. We had some students with little to no painting experience, so I fully expected this to be the tougher session for most of the students. As you can tell from the photo of some of the fish, the students really surprised me with their painting. I helped the students mix colors and explained and demonstrated some painting techniques, and the students took to painting like fish to water. They not only did a great job painting their fish, they also finished half an hour early.
As always happens at classes like this, the students learned from the instructor and their fellow students, and the instructor learned a lot as well. Personally I want to thank Tuckerton Seaport for giving me the opportunity to teach people on the east coast about the greatest North American folk art. The folks at the Seaport were also excited about the class, and have scheduled another fish decoy class for June 12 and June 19, 2004.
The class consisted of two six hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays, the plan being to finish building and weighting the decoy the first day and spend the second session painting the decoy. Our project for the class was a seven inch Brown Trout, a rather ambitious undertaking since only one of the students had ever carved a fish decoy, and five of them had never carved a fish. Needless to say they made the instructor work hard! It took a bit of overtime during session one to insure that all seven decoys were assembled and swimming. To the delight of all, we had seven very good swimming decoys at the end of the day. I’m not sure who was prouder, the students or me.
On day two we painted, using acrylic paints and brushes. We had some students with little to no painting experience, so I fully expected this to be the tougher session for most of the students. As you can tell from the photo of some of the fish, the students really surprised me with their painting. I helped the students mix colors and explained and demonstrated some painting techniques, and the students took to painting like fish to water. They not only did a great job painting their fish, they also finished half an hour early.
As always happens at classes like this, the students learned from the instructor and their fellow students, and the instructor learned a lot as well. Personally I want to thank Tuckerton Seaport for giving me the opportunity to teach people on the east coast about the greatest North American folk art. The folks at the Seaport were also excited about the class, and have scheduled another fish decoy class for June 12 and June 19, 2004.
Story and photos by Rich Brooks