Description: Wendell Gilley is a name well known among carvers and carving collectors. Author of The Art of Bird Carving: A Guide to a Fascinating Hobby, one of the earliest instructional books on the subject, Gilley was a pioneer in the field of decorative bird carving. By his estimate, he created “ten thousand birds of pine and paint” between 1931 and 1983. (Gilley also loved alliteration; it should be noted that most of his carvings were made of basswood.) [show more]
Description: Addie Gilley’s created an outstanding collection of her husband’s work. The carvings that Addie so wisely saved over the years became the core of the Museum’s permanent collection. Wendell and Addie were the guests of honor at the opening of the Gilley Museum on July 12, 1981. They remained active in the museum until their deaths a few months apart in 1983.
Description: Figure permanently mounted on round footed base, intended to be covered with a glass dome. Top of base is a 3/4 inch diameter inner-ground of fine sand. Heron has cast lead legs and feet, lead-strip crest feathers, glass eyes. Signed "Gilley" on side of driftwood "stump" below left side of bird ; no date.
Description: Gull in adult plumage, head erect and straight ahead, wing tips balanced high over tail, feet braced on a navigational buoy called a red nun. Glass eyes, wire legs and metal feet. Buoy painted with white Arabic numeral "4". Carved oval pine base, gouge-carved and painted to resemble sea water. No date visible.
Description: Adult male and female mounted on pine and twig base, the lower bird (female) in downward crouching position, the male perched on lower fork of twig ; wire legs and metal feet, glass eyes ; signed "Gilley" on carved base.
Description: Solitary sandpiper perched with wings upright on driftwood branch ; spotted sandpiper standing, body tilted downward, on carved oblong base. Signed "Gilley" on left front of oblong base ; no date