Josh Brewer of Delmar looks like he might deliver your paper or ring up your fast-food order.
But don?t let that youthful countenance fool you. Brewer is 25 and already a master of waterfowl carving. And he is a highly respected winner in shows and carving exhibitions throughout the region. This past weekend he displayed his artistry at the Easton Waterfowl Festival.
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The Easton festival, held annually during the second weekend of November, is among the best of nationwide shows that exhibit waterfowl decoys, collectors, wildlife art carvers, painters and feature working retrieve demonstrations and anything else related to ducks, guns, waterfowl hunting and conservation.
Josh Brewer was one of 400 exhibitors.
“I came home [from the festival] with only one unsold piece,” he said after the Sunday closing. The only piece that didn?t sell was a huge plaque of claro walnut with three life-size canvasbacks soaring across it. Three buyers wanted it (asking price was $11,500) but it wouldn?t fit on their available wall space.
Sales did include a woodcock ($2,100), a canvasback duck ($2,100) and a mourning dove pair ($3,600). “And,” Brewer added, “I have eight months of commission work.”
Brewer, who earned a biology degree from Salisbury State University, started carving at the age of 12. It was natural for him, as his father Steve is an antique furniture woodworker.
“He took me hunting when I was about 11, and he encouraged me to carve a decoy. We were always in his shop.” he said of his father?s wood shop on their 55-acre property. They now share a new two-story 28-by-48 shop.
By 13, he had sold carvings and entered competitions, taking second in the Bestof Show for antique-style shorebirds at the 1995 Odessa (Delaware) Decoy Carving Show. At 17, he became ? and remains ? a judge in the Salisbury Ward World Championship after winning many ribbons over the years.
To develop his art and skill, Brewer kayaks, canoes, hunts and tramps the marshes with his dog Penny, an English pointer that he got by trading a pair of canvasback decoys.
Penny has been invaluable to his work. “I never had a reference on woodcock,” he said. “When I took one of my first walks with Penny, she pointed 13 of them.” The day after the Easton show, he and Penny got a limit (three) of woodcock.
For additional reference, he uses shot birds, following the technique of hunter/artist John James Audubon, and ? with the appropriate permits ? keeps wild birds in his 16-by-24 aviary.
Brewer starts carving after sketching an outline on the wood, then works with a drawknife, spokeshave and chisels. “Then I do a lot of sanding.”
In addition to catching up on commission work, Brewer plans to start a full-size carving of Penny. It?s probably safe to say that it will not be for sale at any price.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors. He can be reached at [email protected]
