A love of Mother Nature and her intricate details, smells and sounds is what empowers artist Al Brown to fashion images of nature’s inhabitants with such finesse.

His woodworking skills reflect his love of Algonquin Park and the many fish and songbirds that make their home there.

Brown considers himself very fortunate to be able to live in Huntsville, at the foot of this magnificent provincial park, where he garners so much of the inspiration for his work.

“I go in at least once a week. I don’t think most people understand what they’ve got there,” he explains of the park’s many geographical features, its lakes and fantastic ecology.

“If you have ever stood on the edge of a marsh in the early morning mist and heard the sound of the wind in the wings of ducks dropping to feed, or watched a huge raft of bluebills riding out a stiff November wind on open water, you have been witness to an incredible spectacle, which has been taking place for thousands of years.”

Brown found his calling at an early age while fishing and going duck hunting with his uncle in the Collingwood area.

“For trout fishing, of course, Collingwood was such an undeveloped area 50 years ago… It was great for a kid for trout fishing,” he said. “We were Toronto folk but cottaged around Collingwood and that’s where I got going with the fishing interest. My uncle lived in Collingwood his whole life and he loves hunting and fishing.”

Brown started carving hunting decoys out of cedar and soon realized he was actually good at it. He went from carving decoys to songbirds and eventually fish.

“My uncle, who I hunted and fished with a lot, was also a serious bird watcher, so I guess I got a little bit of that interest from him.”

Those fishing and hunting trips took him to some interesting places through the years, travels that helped him discover an appreciation for the details of these aquatic creatures.

Brown’s family had a marine business in Toronto that had been started by his grandfather in 1936. Eventually they sold it and moved to Lake of Bays when Brown was 19 years old. His father opened another marine, at the time called Don Brown and Sons Marine, where Haystack Bay Marine stands today.

Eventually Brown started his own family. He also decided to go solo in the business world and opened a marine of his own on Port Cunnington Road in 1980.

“It wasn’t on the lake; it was a dryland small service operation,” he explains.

All the while Brown continued carving and developed a small customer base through the marine. But he began growing tired of the day-to-day grind of the marine and seriously considered severing his ties to the business and dedicating all of his time to his art.

“I knew that I didn’t want to be doing that for too much longer and I hoped I could turn (my art) around into a full-time thing,” he recalled.

He took that leap of faith in 1987, sold the marine and moved to Huntsville with his family.

“It’s been my full source of income for about 16 years now,” says Brown.

He admits that making a living as an artist is tough and there are many high and lows.

“I had planned a little bit for it, I guess, but it’s also a matter of what your expectations are, too. We don’t have a real fancy lifestyle so it works for us and my kids are finished school,” he explains. “I really enjoy doing this and I really like the people I meet from all over North America.”

The only art show he participates in regularly is held in Algonquin Park, and he’s had opportunity to meet folks from all walks of life there. Called Art in the Park, the event runs from June 20 until Oct. 17 at the Algonquin Art Centre.

“There are a lot of leases in Algonquin Park, about 300, and some of the families have had them for 100 years. So the park has a lot of visitors that come through in the summer months, not campers, but people who summer cottage there, and they come from everywhere, particularly the United States.”

Through the years Brown has developed many friendships there and contacts related to his artwork.

“Generally Algonquin Park folks like nature. That’s what brought them into that area in the first place. The peace and quiet is a little different from Lake of Bays in some ways. They don’t have the big boats because they have a 20 horse power limit on, and you can’t use power boats on all lakes,” he says. “It’s a real special place and being high ground the way it is, it’s pretty much the headwaters for most of the rivers and the lakes. It’s really nice water and really a beautiful spot.”

While Brown has been asked to work on special pieces, he’d rather stick to the tried and true: all kinds of birds and decoys.

“I did do a big piece, which was pretty interesting. It was of a life-size beaver. An artist friend of mine painted a mural behind it, so that was quite an interesting thing, but I stay with pretty much what I do, the smaller birds. I just like that better,” he explains.

He said that what wood he uses depends on how detailed the carving will be.

“For the more decorative carvings, when you need more detail, bass wood is better than the cedar.”

Brown said there is a real market for antique-style duck decoys, requiring less detail he uses traditional cedar wood for those. In terms of the time it takes him to complete a piece, Brown explains that a smaller piece takes him about a week.

To learn more about Brown’s art you can call him at 789-4912 or visit him at 639 Ravenscliffe Road in Huntsville.