“The first thing I remember drawing free hand was the head of a Canvasback.” -- Gary W. Moss, Wildlife Artist Gary Moss was born in 1946 and grew up in Robinsdale, Minnesota, where his 3rd grade teacher recognized his gift for art. When he was eight, his father took him duck-hunting, but only after Gary learned to identify all the species in Sports Afield's ‘Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America “On that first duck hunting trip a friend of my father’s needed a duck identified, so I was handed the bird which I was able identify as a drake Widgeon. Still wonder what the man thought” Moss met wildlife artist Francis Lee Jaques through a high school friend and artist Les Kouba who took an interest and showed some of Gary’s work in his gallery. Moss attended MCAD, where “Much to the consternation of my instructors I continued to paint and draw ducks.” He spent his Junior year abroad at Atelier 63 in Haarlem, Holland, and graduated from MCAD with a BFA in 1968. Moss was drafted into the U.S. Marines 1968, and wound up as a Marine Combat Artist in Vietnam. In 1970, he was named the USMC Combat Artist of the Year. His work was included in “Portrait of Vietnam,” a national traveling show, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute. Recently, in 2017 participated in a Combat Art Symposium in which all U.S. major military branches were in attendance. Moss became a professional wildlife artist in 1976, and moved to Cambridge, Minnesota. He was the 1983 Minnesota Duck Stamp Designer, and his commissions for national conservation groups include Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, and National Wild Turkey Federation, amongst many others. Other commissions include paintings for a John Deere calendar series and for Ruger North American, a North American big game series, which was printed as well as engraved on one-of-a-kind rifles. Gary’s award-winning work is exhibited in galleries and collections across the country, including the local James Ford Bell Museum and Sherburne NWR.