When he was 14 years old, George Weiss decided, for no particular reason, to get a piece of soapstone and carve himself a fish. He hadn’t learned to carve, but he felt he could do it. Wet soapstone was easy to shape, and he made a perfect little sunfish. His four-inch debut sculpture began a carving career and was deemed by the young sculptor-inprogress to be a hit. “People recognized what kind of fish it was,” he laughs, now 34 years older and an awardwinning carver of large sportfi sh so lifelike, most people think they are taxidermies. “It even had pectoral fi ns on the sides. I knew then that I had a talent for carving.”
The Kitchener native, who has resided happily in Callander, Ont., for two-and-a-half years, considers himself a carpenter by trade and an artist by instinct. A skilled, self-taught woodworker, Weiss frames houses, installs cabinets and builds children’s furniture, while as an emerging artist he crafts impressively large wooden sculptures of legendary ones-that-got-away like walleye, pike and muskellunge (a.k.a. muskies), as well as the ones who took the bait like rainbow trout, perch and salmon. Brother and fellow artist Charles Weiss, a renowned Toronto sportsfi sh and wildlife painter, does about 90 per cent of the exquisite colouring of George’s creations and taught his talented brother how to reproduce the startling mix of colours almost every fi sh carries. The brothers get together to collaborate three or four times a year.
The results have been shown at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show, and collected ribbons at the Buckhorn Fine Arts Festival, the Canadian Woodcarving Championships at the Hamilton Wood Show and others. “Charlie is amazing with colours,” says George, noting a 49” pike carving with sharp teeth bared that won a fi rst place award at the Kawartha Lakes Art Festival in 2001. The brothers, who are life-long sport fi shermen, recently completed an out-sized diorama of two Atlantic salmon preparing to spawn, both curved sinuously in anticipation.
To make the giant pieces, George begins with an 8 1/2” by 11” paper drawing before scaling up to large c r o s s - s e c t i o n sketches of the fi sh that keep it in perfect proportion. “For a 50” pike, there is a drawing every six inches,” George explains. “The carvings are hollow because it makes them stronger than if they had a solid core.” For one 66” muskie, inspired by a 58 lb. Canadian record catch, George laminated 11 layers of pine together for the head and 11 more for the tail, leaving a hollow ‘box’ inside. Big sculptures take 80 hours or more to complete.
The artist often carves permanent trophies for fishermen from good quality photos of their prize catches. “It will look far more realistic than fiberglass copies because fiberglass comes in standard sizes and colours,” he explains.
The colours of George’s fish reflect their region of origin. “In St. Catharine’s, the muskie are almost ghost fish, very pale, due to their diet,” he says. “Colours for many fish change according to their habitat.” Sculptures emerge from a garage workshop lined with hand-carving tools, rotary bit tools for shaping, palm sanders and roughing tools. A couple of pickerel are currently going swimmingly, he says. Here’s also where, since spring, he has designed and built chairs and end tables for the Little Wings Daycare at the North Bay air force base.
George’s love for carving isn’t surprising in a family where younger brother Bob paints classic car murals, mom works in watercolours, dad sculpts snow statues and grandmother has been known to carve giraffes. An aunt who doesn’t paint or carve helped inspire her nephews’ love of fish after catching a 6’ muskie while babysitting the boys, and memorably hauling it over a picnic table. “Charles and I want to pursue our collaborations further, so if anyone wants to preserve a sport fi shing memory, give me a call,” says George. George Weiss can be reached at 705-752-1089 or through Charles Weiss’ studio at 416-752-4363.