From his boyhood days, his lifelong passion was game birds, especially waterfowl. His illustrations of birds in their natural environment are astonishingly lifelike, even in his very early sketches. He was an ardent hunter and his art depicts game birds as the hunter actually saw them. So it is not suprising that hunters are his most ardent admirers.
Roland Clark was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1874. He graduated from the William Kellogg School in New York City, then pursued his formal art training studying drawing and painting at the Art Students League. In the early 1920’s he began to create the etchings that were to bring him national and international acclaim. His contemporaries held him in such high regard that he was asked to create the U.S. Federal duck stamp design in 1938.
In addition to his legendary etchings he created numerous renowned oil paintings, watercolors, and aquatints. He was also a prolific writer of sporting articles, short stories, and poems. Stray Shots was his first autobiographical collection of stories and essays, published in 1931, and illustrated with thirteen original etchings. It has become one of the most valued sporting books of all time. Stray Shots was followed by the beautifully illustrated Gunner’s Dawn in 1937, and Pot Luck in 1945.
Website
http://rolandclark.com