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Northern Cardinal
Original Tupelo Wood Hand Carving
Height 6"
Click image to enlarge
$1,900.00
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American Goldfinch
Original Tupelo Wood Hand Carving
Height 8"
Click image to enlarge
$1,950.00
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Woodcock
Original Tupelo Wood Hand Carving
Height 7"
Click image to enlarge
$2,000.00
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Baby Blue Birds
Original Tupelo Wood Hand Carving
Height 3"
Click image to enlarge
$2,200.00
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Grouse
Original Tupelo Wood Hand Carving
Height 15"
Click image to enlarge
$5,000.00
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James Maas
Recently retired Northeast Kingdom physician Jim Maas was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania on July 27, 1945. Though an art enthusiast throughout his life, it took 25 years of work as an orthopedic surgeon in the small community of Newport, Vermont to realize his calling as an artist. His local high school only offered art classes to the freshman class, so Jim expressed his creativity by pursuing several different artistic hobbies through college, post-graduate studies and the first several years of private practice in Newport. His past endeavors included watercolor, pen and ink, photography, and clay sculpture.
It was not until 1998 that Jim found his true passion in the form of bird carving after happening across one of Master Carver Floyd Scholz’s pieces, on display in the lobby of a Vermont hotel. The magnificent rendering of a falcon perched on a glove inspired Jim to pursue the study of bird carving under Mr. Scholz at his training institute. In addition to three years of study there, he has also recently studied under Larry Barth, another Master Carver who has won 1st place in the Ward Museum World Championships five times in recent history.
Dr. Maas uses his practiced surgeon's capability for fine hand-eye coordination to expertly capture the realism that is so vital in the field of competitive bird carving. Of equal or greater importance to this genre, however, is a sensibility for discovering meaningful, artistic statements within these realistic depictions of avian life. It is this awareness for the beauty of the natural world of birds that has helped Dr. Maas to create many award-winning carvings.
Jim favors tupelo, a soft wood native to Tupelo, Mississippi for his birds. His bases are made from basswood, walnut, or cherry. Competition pieces are required to be entirely handmade, except for the eyes. This includes the habitat the bird might be in. Therefore, all branches, leaves, flowers, rocks and other elements of setting are completely handcrafted, as well. Jim follows this procedure for all of his pieces. He uses a variety of painting techniques and tools to bring life to his carefully fashioned carvings.
His work has been honored at the following competitions: Northeast Wildlife Art Show in Morrisville, VT, Ward Museum World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition in Ocean City, Maryland, and the Concours Quebecois d’Sculpture Oiseaux in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In addition, his carvings have been on display at the Chris Murray Studio Workshop in Stowe, the Ducktrap Bay Trading Company in Camden, Maine, and at the Community National Bank in Newport, Vermont.
Robert Paul Galleries is proud to show the works of James Maas.
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