‘Date Night - Owl over High Point.’ (Courtesy of Carol Decker)
‘Horse - Backyard Partners.’ (Courtesy of Carol Decker)
Two weeks ago, I included with this column a beautiful painting depicting the old red barn along Route 565 that we remember as Winding Brook Farm.
At the time, I did not know who created the image but subsequently found out. The artist was Carol Decker!
Carol is a leading artist from Sussex County and has been for a long time. She is an internationally acclaimed wildlife artist and naturalist.
I can personally say that the wildlife in her paintings is outstanding and lifelike. The colors are warm and welcoming and appear as if we are looking through a window to the wild.
Carol designed and painted two White House ornaments for the Blue Room Christmas Tree in 2007. She did more than 80 original paintings for the magazine New Jersey Outdoors and many other notable printings, awards and acclamations.
Her work has appeared in countless magazines, books, calendars, posters, cards, prints and apparel during the years.
I met Carol about 20 years ago at an art show on Spring Street in Newton. She is personable and always ready for a friendly conversation about Sussex County.
She lives the dream, residing with her family in the Branchville area, among the forests and lakes of the western part of the county, near the Kittatinny Mountains.
In this setting, she has spent countless hours studying the birds and animals who live among the fields and streams surrounding her home. She has captured the wealth of our natural history on canvas.
Important to our history, Carol has preserved buildings. Among these are the Layton General Store featuring the Mail Pouch signage that many of us remember on the side of the building; Winding Brook Farm; Lusscroft Farm; and the stately but long-gone Kuser Mansion at High Point State Park.
“I strive to bring the beauty and serenity of my scenes realistically to everyone as I see them,” she says. “I see paintings everywhere, margins, boundaries, edges and frames, light, shadow, the touch of a feather, a leaf or a reflection in a pool or stream. I see the glory of nature and its wildlife every day, a gift to me, and I strive to reproduce it as my gift to you.”
Here are two paintings by Carol that I feel capture the beauty of Sussex County.
One is of horses on a winter’s day, seemingly glad to be partners in our serene rural setting.
Horses are today an integral part of the beauty of our county, frequently seen galloping along a rolling green field behind a white wooden fence line.
The other painting is an image of an owl with wings spread, all-seeing and floating over Lake Marsha with the Veteran’s Monument in the background - a penultimate recognition of the features of our homeland.
“I want my work to stand for more than just its aesthetic value,” Carol says.
Believe me, it does.
Bill Truran, Sussex County’s historian, may be contacted at billt1425@gmail.com