This Sitka Blacktail buck was painted by my hunting buddy, Ed Mills.

   

I took Ed up to my "secret place" on Prince of Wales Island a couple of years after I took my largest buck in the vicinity of the area depicted in this painting. Ed took many photos of the area, and this is actually a composite, with the distant hills view in reality being behind the buck.

I'd like to say that I commissioned Ed to paint this for me, but he came up with it himself. He did borrow the antlers from my buck, and a copy of the photo I have in my profile to help get the velvet covered antlers to look right.

Being that he was making a living creating such masterpieces, it was up for sale at one of the local galleries. I didn't think that I could justify spending the $2k to buy it, so I could only dream about owning it. My wife, though, thought that I should have it, and surprised me with it on my 40th birthday! What a wife I have!

Ed has since gone on to the happy hunting grounds. This painting and prints from his other works of art are some of my most treasured items I own.

That is an incredible pic!

Beautiful!  Even cooler when it's an area you hunt yourself.  Very cool!

Love it! A great way to keep those memories fresh

Chuck,

Hope to come by and say Hi sometime soon since you only live a few miles away!  Been gone and working excessive lately.

BTW, that is one BIG blacktail, probably as big as the World Record!    ; ^ )

Steve,

I'm sure it's from the same gene pool....

Hey that place looks familiar...I've hunted a dozen places that look exactly like that!

Awesome..

Chris

Very Nice!!

Thank you for sharing such a wonder with us.

Bender- KEEP your wife ! Your a lucky man

BTW, for those that didn't follow, this buck is the current Pope & Yound World Record Sitka Blacktail.

I stopped by Chuck's place lsat night to finally meet him and talked bowz and arrowz for a while.

Good meeting you Chuck!

Thanks, Steve, and everyone else who posted. I'm glad you enjoyed Ed's work.