A Decoy Corner Article
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
All photos courtesy David VanLanen
Many carvers begin their carving careers fretting about applying paint to their expertly carved decoys. David VanLanen was not one of those carvers; he began his artistic career with painting flat art scenes but soon grew bored of that and began carving decoys!
David was born in 1946 and grew up in rural Oneida, just west of Green Bay, WI. His parents were farmers and he grew up helping with the farm work. In college David studied architecture and became a registered architect in 1974. After college he joined the army where he served for three years, including one year in Vietnam.
After returning from the service he was employed as an architect and in 1986 he ventured out on his own.
David’s day job as an architect included a lot of drawing and he found himself painting flat art in his spare time. Nature and wildlife scenes were his favorite. One day while painting a nature scene at Barkhausen Wildlife preserve near Green Bay he met a man carving decoys. From that time forward David had the decoy carving bug!
He began carving in 1998 and was fortunate to take a number of classes with some very experienced master carvers. David began to enter local and national decoy carving contests and has won numerous ribbons, over 30 Best of Show’s and a 3rd place finish for Best in the World at the Ward World Championships in Ocean City, Maryland. David was also named the International Wildfowl Carver Association Novice and Intermediate carver of the year. David was chosen to carve decoy models for the Flambeau Decoy Co. and they are still marketing the “Stormfront” mallard and wood ducks from his models!
David has carved upwards of 200 decoys to date and is still carving about 10 per year. He has carved most every species of duck but has done very few geese.
Many of his decoys are decorative, but he also carves working decoys in what he describes as a “realistic” style. Although he has learned techniques from many of the masters, he has developed his own “realistic style”. He carves in basswood, Tupelo and cork and uses mainly acrylic paint.
David has been named WWA’s Artist of the Year in the past and has donated his mallard sponsor prints for numerous WWA fundraising events.
Dave continues to carve decoys and spends some of his winter months enjoying warmer weather in the South. Who can blame him for that?
David R VanLanen is another original Wisconsin Decoy Carver, artist and lifetime member of Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. As you can see, his decoys will grace anyone’s mantel or lure in even the most cautious waterfowl.