The Wendell Gilley Museum honors the legacy of noted bird carver Wendell Gilley.
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.
The museum collection includes more than 300 carvings by Gilley, who carved thousands of birds between 1931 and 1983 (more than 10,000 by his own count!) In addition, the permanent collection holds a full Birds of America elephant-size reproduction portfolio by Audubon and a Birds of Mount Desert original portfolio by Tyson. Prints from these two portfolios are often on view. Also a small, but growing, collection of two- and three-dimensional works by contemporary artists, including painter and writer Gail Gibbons, printmaker Andera Rich and sculptor Don Rambadt, among others.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website