Richard McGee has always been an avid outdoorsman and an artistic creator. More than 15 years ago, he decided to combine the two and took up painting as a hobby.
“I’ve always been able to sketch and draw,” he said.
McGee has spent most of his life hunting and fishing, so he chooses wildlife scenes, images and landscapes he has encountered throughout the years as subjects for his artwork.
“I’ve spent way too much time in the woods and the water,” he said. “I like to paint things that I remember and things that have impressed me.”
He set up a small studio with “good outdoor light” in the spare bedroom of the home he shares with his wife of 40-plus years, Noni.
As a child, McGee would sit in class and draw little sketches. As an adult, he used that skill in his advertising business, designing brochures and logos. His art talents proved critical then, as their business pre-dated computers and the design software that came with them.
When he retired, he “couldn’t sit still” and needed projects. Oil painting became the answer. When he paints, he begins with a pencil sketch of the image, sometimes projecting that image to a full-size canvas to outline and paint. He tries to make his painting look as realistic as possible, especially if it features wildlife.
“A scene that is still strong in my memory…it satisfies me to see it and reproduce it on canvas. It’s almost like getting to relive it a little bit,” said McGee. “If I’m trying to draw something realistic, I want to make sure that it is real. I’m not too picky, but if I’m making a bird, the bird’s got to look like an actual bird.”
He’ll even research the colors of the feathers of a particular bird, or other tiny details, and has been known to start over if he isn’t happy with the direction a painting is going.
“If he’s not happy with it, he’ll just take white paint and cover it, and just completely restart,” Noni McGee said.
He’s also been known to remove a finished painting from the wall when he spies something that might need fixing. “I’ll look at it, and months later, I’ll take it down and make changes,” Richard McGee said.
If he’s painting a log or string of moss, McGee said it needs to look interesting and attractive.
“It seems silly, but I like to remember what an old log looks like, what certain leaves look like on an old cypress tree,” McGee said. “I have an ability, I guess, to remember what they look like.”
As for the men featured in his paintings, one might notice they all bear a striking resemblance to the artist himself. That’s because they are. Noni McGee often takes photos of him in the poses he wishes to paint.
“It’s a team effort,” she said.
McGee originally hails from Virginia but moved to Florida when he attended the University of Florida and settled in Jacksonville when his father was stationed at NAS Jax. He spent much of his childhood hunting and fishing with his father, who taught him most of what he knows about the outdoors, which he passed on to his two stepsons, Tom and Frank.
“Tom is a carbon copy of him,” Noni McGee said. “He adored everything he did and mimicked him.”
McGee’s hunting and creativity also led him to create a duck decoy – which was then manufactured into a plastic duck.
“They made a mold out of his carving because they were so accurate,” Noni McGee said. “And people love them.”
The Wingsetter decoys were produced in the ‘70s, though one can still find them in vintage shops or on eBay.
While hunting and fishing may have taken up “too much” of his time over the years, McGee said that if he were to start a career today, he would enjoy being involved in the production of an outdoor TV show. But for now, he’ll have to settle on being famous instead for his art. Noni McGee said his paintings have become so popular at the Crab Festival in Steinhatchee, Florida, that people recognize him on the street.
“He’s quite famous in Steinhatchee,” she said. “They all know him in the restaurant.”
He’s also won several awards for painting, including first place at the “In Flight” show at the Art Center Cooperative Inc.
While he is starting to slow down with his paintings, he’s got quite a stash he would love to pass to someone else.
“It is my hope that those who view my work will agree that my subjects and themes are worthy of my creative efforts and enjoy my interpretation of that which has inspired me,” he said.
