“…the most incredibly wonderful, generous, humorous and likable son of a bitch who ever lived.” To many discerning readers, Robert Ruark ranks as the finest outdoor writer ever to grace the American literary scene. His enduring fame is linked to...
“…I could do it if I practiced enough.” It’s not uncommon, upon meeting Julie Jeppsen for the first time, to find yourself doing a double take just a few minutes later. Let’s say you’re at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in...
It’s only natural that Greg Beecham should feel as he does. His dad, Tom Beecham…drilled drawing into him before the youngsters years had reached his teens. Greg Beecham’s dusty brown felt hat rides high on his forehead, the way a cowboy sits straight on his...
I had not come here to say good-bye — I already had, and I never would. The Last eleven miles of road were as I remembered. Even these many years later. Each mile — rutted, washed-out and overhung with cypress and oak — had always seemed to be the price we paid to...
As both sportsman and art lover, my walls battle for either mounted heads or country scenes. Oddly, though, I own no wildlife art. Before visiting John Schoenherr I wasn’t sure why. Now I am. Over the years, most wildlife has seemed partisan to me, as though the...
It has always seemed to me that any man is a better man for being a hunter. I have said that my hunting has often been solitary; but that was chiefly in the early days. During the last 25 years, I have rarely taken to the woods and fields in the shooting season...
“You don’t decide on a style…you do the work and a style evolves.” Over the years, I have had the luck to interview some very talented wildlife artists. A number actually hunted, others did not. In the work of those that did, I discovered...
For Joshua Spies, it’s about payback. Across the lonesome, windblown prairie of northern mid-America, locals know him simply as “the kid.” On this morning, the prodigal artistic son of Watertown, South Dakota, stands in his studio surrounded by six...
To elicit thoughtful reflection … to trigger an emotional response, these are the things McKissick seeks in his art. Of course you can’t always tell a book by its cover — nor a painter by his paintings. Take Randall McKissick, for example. With just a...
Almost every trapper past middle age who has spent his life in the wilderness has stories to tell about exceptionally savage bears. One of these stories was told in my ranch house one evening by an old mountain hunter, clad in fur cap, buckskin hunting shirt, and...
