A Decoy Corner Article
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
Many of my past Decoy Corner articles have focused on our vintage decoy carvers from Wisconsin. Most have plied their trade since the early 1900’s into the heyday of market hunting and unregulated harvest… and unfortunately, many of them have passed on to that decoy shop in the sky.
This month I want to focus on a contemporary carver that is very much alive and well and living in Black Earth, Wisconsin.
Geoff Vine has been carving decoys since 1992 and his style and technique rate him right up there with his contemporary counterparts nationally and some of the best of our Wisconsin vintage carvers. Geoff’s day job is President of Stevens Construction Co. located near Waunakee, WI, and as you would expect, his day job keeps him very busy, but his passion has been decoy carving. He has said that he looks forward to the time when he can retire and focus entirely on his passion of waterfowl carving.
Geoff started carving professionally in 1992 and was influenced by several contemporary carvers. Vine studies the many styles of the carvers he meets and uses their knowledge and advice to improve his own techniques and style. He carves in the Delaware (New Jersey) style and many of his creations do not have eyes; blind as we carvers call it. Geoff initially painted his decoys with acrylic paints and experimented with acrylic painting with oil blending techniques. He found however, that while acrylic paint dries faster and is easier to work with it, does not have the same character, aging or patina found with using oil paint. He switched his painting medium to oil, which allows him to use his skillful blending and shading techniques that plays to his creative style. In addition, he paints in the “Blair School” style with lots of blending, but retains brilliant colors and contrast with hard, clean lines.
Vine’s decoys are carved exclusively from Maine cedar he obtains directly from his sawyer in Maine. He is known to hollow his decoys to extremes, many eggshell thin, and has the lightest wood decoys available. He enjoys carving contemporary antique decoys with his own style because he likes to get back to traditional methods, but also carves many contemporary working decoys.
Geoff entered a number of east coast carving competitions early in his career and has done quite well, winning Best of Show as well as runner up on numerous occasions for his Delaware style decoys. Not too bad for a cheesehead from Wisconsin (originally growing up in Green Bay).
While you can order decoys directly from Geoff, many of his decoys become available on major decoy auctions each year. You can’t go wrong with this carver’s work. I am sure his decoys will be valued just like a Crowell or Ward brother by the time he finishes his carving career!
Geoff was scheduled to be a judge at our WWA Decoy Carving Contest and Exhibition in 2020, but as we all know, that was postponed due to the pandemic. Hopefully you can meet him in 2022 at our scheduled decoy carving contest show at the Mead Wildlife Center in July, and maybe even get a glimpse of his championship decoys or perhaps order one for your rig or mantle.