"Because I needed to make large, lightweight birds such as swans and geese and was impressed with the construction and the functional use of assembling cast off odds and ends of scrap cloth, wire, and wood I made my first canvas decoys and have enjoyed the challenge of the
functional art form ever since..."

Art Gremillion, from Canvas Decoys of North America
by Archie Johnson
Click here to see canvas
decoys in the making.


rthur Gremillion is a traditional decoy and folk artist whose work is centered around working waterfowl decoys. His style has been influenced by living, collecting and admiring carvers from various regions throughout the country. The differences of styles and carvings of North Carolina, Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky, the Upper Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Long Island, where he has lived, have been important in his creating a decoy form that is honest, strong and appealing as folk art and to decoy collectors and sportsmen. Regional differences have influenced and stylized his waterfowl decoys and sculptures to an art form that is functional, lifelike and unique.

The materials he uses include found and native objects such as: old wood from shipwrecks, houses or barns; old telephone poles, roots; driftwood; canvas and fence posts; the same materials that have been used for decoy making for centuries.

Each handcarved piece is made to be a working decoy, with attractiveness and durability. . These decoys have been used by birdwatchers and by sportsmen but the majority are sought by galleries, museums and prominent collectors. Each piece is made with the materials at hand, to work with the natural elements of wind and water, and then to appeal to both the maker and the collector.

Many of Arthur's handmade decoys and waterfowl have been presented with awards both as gunning decoys and contemporary folk art. He also lectures to historical groups on the art of the decoy, its uses and the making of decoys. The Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, with one of the foremost decoy collections in America commissioned a full size Great Blue Heron and an Great Egret for permanent exhibit as examples of American decoy art of the Nineteenth Century. He creates decoys that are true to the art form and are not copies.


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