Wicked Hisser, Part Two

To a layperson, painting a goose decoy might look fairly simple. After all, there are only three colors on the bird: black, white, and gray, and the last one is a combination of the first two. On the simplest of goose decoys, this might actually be true, but on the “floating sculptures” by today’s carvers, simple just doesn’t begin to fit, as you will see.

Dan Bruffee spent 25 hours carving this open-mouthed “Wicked Hisser” goose decoy. The painting of the decoy took another eight hours, so in all, this was a 33-hour project. As you look at the painting process, you’ll gain new respect for Dan’s carving, as the grain begins to become defined by the shading of the paint so that you can see how it appears to be part of the bird’s feathering.