Derry 'Wild Man' hunts with camera

DERRY--When Joe Mattock trekked into the woods at the start of hunting season this year, he loaded up with more than just his rifle and ammunition.

Tucked in his bag, there's always a sketch pad and camera, loaded and ready.

A hunter ever since he was old enough for a license, Mattock, 57, hasn't had much luck in recent years. He usually shoots his camera more than his gun.

In fact, "I haven't shot my gun in three years."

Not that that bothers him. As a wildlife artist, he gets more enjoyment from photographing and sketching his prey more than he does cooking up venison.

"If I'm out in the woods," he remarked, "I have a sketch pad and a camera."

Many of his pieces are portraits of life experiences. A recent captivation with fly fishing has resulted in a pair of richly-hued paintings depicting the sport.

In one, he captured his brother deep in concentration mid-cast, which he called "The Presentation."

"My brother taught us" how to fly fish, Mattock explained. "And he always talked about how important the presentation is."

Golden fields, leaf-layered forest floors, and snowy slopes are the backdrops to most of Mattock's paintings, so when he decided to take a stab at a more aquatic pursuit when he took up fly fishing three years ago, it was a challenge.

"It was something different," he said. "I had never done that before."

Acrylic paints, water colors and colored pencils are his tools of choice. When the mood strikes, he'll sometimes combine colored pencil and acrylic for a different effect, but the majority of his work is done in acrylics.

"I have more control over (acrylics)," he said compared to its oil and water color counterparts. "You get more detail. I like to have a lot of detail in my painting."

"If I want to, I'll put people in," Mattock added, noting that most of his paintings have wildlife in their natural habitat--no humans. Hunters will sporadically pop up, though, especially in his commissioned work.

A graduate of Latrobe High School, Mattock continued at the Pittsburgh Art Institute for three years after high school. Illustration was his focus. "I wanted to be an illustrator for a magazine, but it didn't turn out that way," he stated.

Just two weeks after he graduated, Mattock had to endure a major setback to his art career--the draft.

He was in the Army for three years, and was handed a camera due to his art background.

"I wanted to do something related to art, and I wanted to learn photography," so it seemed natural, he said. But Army photography was not what he expected.

"It didn't turn out," he quipped, adding that his duties included making maps and keeping the 60-pound cameras loaded, prepped and updated, so that when fighting broke out, the cameras were operable.

He served in Vietnam for a stint, making maps using the overhead photographs he took.

When he returned to the States, Mattock did not have an easy time finding a job within his career goals. He ended up taking a job with Latrobe Steel, but continued his artwork on the side.

"I've always liked to draw," he stated. "I just never quit."

Mattock's passion for art was drawn from his father, also named Joe.

Joe Sr. owned a butcher shop in Latrobe, but like his son, he always kept up with his drawing and painting.

"I'd watch him paint," Mattock said, noting that his father had a knack for drawing a broad selection of subjects, including store fronts, animals, and people.

Mattock Sr.'s work still circulates among local art markets.

Mattock recalled one case of mistaken identity, when he received a call from a man who had recently purchased a piece at a local auction signed by Joe Mattock.

The man phoned Mattock, asking to see more of his work with the intent of switching the one he had purchased for another.

"He described the one he had, and I said I never did anything like that," Mattock remembered. "He said, 'Well, your name's on it.' Here, it was one my dad did."

So Mattock took the man up on his offer, trading him a print for his father's painting. "He was happy, I was happy," Mattock said.

Mattock's partiality to the more casual forms of art has continued since his illustration education.

Aside from his wildlife painting, he continues to draw cartoons and caricatures, and in the past has enjoyed designing album covers.

When co-workers retire from Latrobe Steel, Mattock is often enlisted to draw a keepsake caricature.

But still, the majority of his work spawns from hours of sitting outdoors, watching, photographing, and sketching nature.

"I never knew you could make any money doing wildlife," Mattock said.

But his wildlife art seemed a natural progression from his illustration beginnings.

"I like hunting and being in the woods, so the two kind of intertwined," he noted.

It was around 1988 that Mattock and his wife, Mona, walked into Nature Nook Gallery in Greensburg, in search of a painting of a red fox.

He ended up chatting with owners Chuck and Kathy Hayden, who asked Mattock if he did any painting or drawing himself.

"We told him, 'Why don't you bring some of your work and we'll take a look at it,'" said Kathy Hayden.

When he did, "We asked him, 'Why are you buying a print of a red fox when you can paint one?' We were in awe.

"Being in this business, we get a lot of people who bring in artwork, and it's usually good, but his was just exceptional work. His stood out far above other wildlife artists whose work we had seen.

"Obviously, we love his work because we invest our money to publish it. We were really impressed with some of the things he's done."

The Haydens agreed to sell some of Mattock's work, and even hired him to do a pet portrait.

That and other pet paintings that he had done opened up a whole new avenue for Mattock's artwork.

"People would see them, and a lot of people are interested in getting their pets painted," Hayden noted.

He began doing commissioned work for both people and pet portraits, "And it all just snowballed," he said.

His blend of outdoor life and painting has led him to memberships in a variety of wildlife organizations. He belongs to Pheasants Forever, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The Latrobe Art League, of which he's also a member, is an outlet for his art interest.

Mattock has submitted his work to a number of wildlife-themed art contests, and usually comes away with an award for his work.

"Little Mahoning, Autumn Hatch," depicting a couple fly fishing in Indiana County amidst running water and a green canvas, took second place in the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission trout stamp contest. Hayden added that that particular print is one of Mattock's best sellers at the Nature Nook.

His rendering of a flock of turkeys pecking for food, called "Autumn Alert," won second place in the National Wild Turkey Federation print contest, a competition in which he's won first runner-up numerous times.

"Silent Presence," his painting of a red fox, striking against a snowy background, placed third in the Working Together for Wildlife art contest, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

But he's still waiting for that prize bounty.

"I've never gotten first," he lamented. "I've always gotten second or third or something.

"One of these days, I'm going to win it."

A few years into his wildlife painting, Mattock decided he would try his hand at cover illustrations. He first submitted work to Pennsylvania Game News, but wasn't accepted. The second submission he gave in 1990 established him as one of the magazine's artists. His first magazine print was a black and white sketch of a turkey scene--as required, he had also turned in pencil drawings and paintings.

This paid position was given to 12 artists, each of who is assigned one month out of the year to design a magazine cover.

"They would give you three or four months to do it," he said. "They'll tell you, 'We want an elk scene,' and I'll do the preliminary sketches for them to critique."

He worked with Pennsylvania Game News for 12 years, ending his stint with them two years ago.

"It was good exposure," he said of the experience. "People got to know me from the covers and that really helped my career."

Art shows are now a favorite stomping ground for Mattock, including the Wildlife Show in Ligonier and a Hidden Valley show he helped organize, which ran for five years. Most of the shows he does now, though, are out east.

"He gets a lot of commissioned work through those shows," Hayden said. "Over the years, he's gathered some followers."

Mattock began doing commissioned work when he first started showing at Nature Nook Gallery. Pet portraits were a favorite among his customers because of his knack for capturing realistic furry faces.

"I've done a lot of pets," he noted of his portrait work. "More pets than people."

When doing a pet portrait, Mattock will either request photographs of the subject or subjects, or take the photos himself.

He'll often use a lightbox to view slides of photographs, as a reference point, he noted.

"That way, I can combine different photographs into one painting."

For example, someone who commissioned him to do a pet portrait wanted the dog in a specific pose, but didn't have a photograph of the exact look.

So Mattock will extract bits and pieces of a variety of photographs taken of the subject to piece together a rendering of what the final work will look like.

One of his most lavish pieces was a commission for an acquaintance who had installed a home theater.

Steve McBroom was looking for an aesthetically pleasing canvas for the screen. He had heard of Mattock through one of the builders working on the home.

Mattock gave him a few examples of his work, including a scene of a local farm in New Derry.

"He's looking at the painting, and he said, 'Boy, that looks familiar,'" Mattock said.

"I told him where it was, and it turns out, he grew up on that farm.

"Of all the farm scenes I've done, I picked up the one farm that he grew up on."

Needless to say, McBroom was sold.

He asked Mattock to paint a pheasant hunting scene, big enough to cover the large screen, with the farm in the background.

"He said he was going to challenge me," Mattock acknowledged.

"It was the biggest piece I've ever done."

A carpenter built a frame around the screen, and the 5x9-foot painting was actually installed on a roller. When the screen is blank, the painting is unrolled, stretching across the void.

Mattock also designed a turkey painting for McBroom that was then made into a stained glass hanging.

Another of his more remarkable projects was a "light painting" done of Overly's Christmas light festival.

Using scratch board and a dentist's drill, Mattock drew, dot by dot, a scene from the light festival. When placed against a light board, the piece captures the glow of the scene.

What makes commissioned painting most satisfying, though, is when it's a gift.

"I love when people don't know they're getting it," Mattock said. "That day, you normally get a call."

People, homes, and scenery also supplement his work of portraits, but it's pets that people most want to be captured on canvas.

One of his more unusual paintings was for a man who had studied shrews all of his life.

He came to the man's house, where he sketched and snapped just a few shrews that made their home on his land.

Every once in a while, Mattock will still be asked to draw a cartoon or caricature.

He recalled an unusual phone call from a man asking if he could draw a cartoon of his friend.

They had been biking one day, when the man ran his bike right into a ground hog, wrecking the bike and breaking his leg.

He also drew one at his uncle's request. "My uncle Bob always wanted me to paint a cow with a pregnant canary on his back," Mattock said.

"Ever since I was 12 years old, he's asked me to paint it as a joke.

"And I did it. It's hanging in his home."

Mona Mattock has also sparked an interest in her husband to paint the Amish, too.

She has always been drawn to the rural folk whom Mattock captures in his paintings, some of which hang in their own home.

"My wife and I spend a lot of time in the Amish country," where they befriended an Amish family.

"I started illustrating and drawing them," Mattock stated.

Between Mattock's success with wildlife magazine covers, portraits and his love for illustration, he found his market and his art career has prospered, though discouraged at his start when he didn't find a job in the industry out of the Army.

"Joe puts a lot of effort into his artwork," Hayden remarked.

"We've seen a lot of improvement in his preciseness and quality of work over the years. He's getting better and better."

"We really didn't think it would take off like it did," noted Mona Mattock who handles most of the business end of her husband's art work.

"I've pretty much painted everything," Mattock said. "You name it, I've done it."