Ep 213. The Gift of Carol Decker's Wildlife Art

Mary Stone interviews Carol Decker, a renowned wildlife artist. Carol shares her self-taught art journey, emphasizing thankfulness for her gift and success. Her 80 paintings graced the covers of New Jersey Outdoor magazine, propelling her career. Carol shares a remarkable story of how one of the original paintings came back into her possession. The conversation highlights the importance of living in gratitude and love, embracing the wisdom of nature. 

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The Gift of Carol Decker’s Wildlife Art - Blog Post 

Ep 46. The Gift of Cut Flowers / Joy of Receiving Cut Flowers - Blog Post

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More about the Podcast and Column:

Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Transcript

Ep 213. The Gift of Carol Decker's Wildlife Art

Sat, Jul 19, 2025 1:48PM • 20:24

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Carol Decker, wildlife art, nature inspiration, garden party, Birth Haven, Ken Roberts, art show, self-taught artist, old masters, New Jersey Outdoor Magazine, gratitude, humble spirit, Facebook page, art studio, nature connection.

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone, Carol Decker

Mary Stone  00:01

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to garden dilemmas, delights and discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other, we have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Good morning. It's Mary stone on the screen porch. I am shocked to be hearing the cicadas are starting to sing, and we're not even in August. It usually starts in August, but here we are in mid July, and I welcome you, and I want to thank those that reach back after our last chat about beavers versus woodchucks and barberry alternatives, I'm sorry I missed you last week, I was busy with the episode you're going to hear today, which is a very special one. I recently had a delightful visit with Carol Decker, who's a world-renowned artist that lives not far from here. I had the privilege of meeting her at a garden party where she had an art show and a fundraiser for Birth Haven. And as we got to chatting, I asked her if I could interview her, and I look forward to sharing the outcomes of that with you. I've known her art over the years because of the gorgeous paintings of nature and wildlife that grace the halls of the home for hospice and the bereavement center. So when Ken Roberts asked me to join him to sing for the event, I was very delighted. So Ken Roberts, as you know, is my singing partner and dear friend at the home for hospice. 

Mary Stone  01:37

Before my visit, though, I sent her some stories and column posts and podcasts so that she got to know a bit about me. I said to the one about the joy of receiving cut flowers, the winter season of growth and the milestone in our journey together. You likely remember those episodes, but I will put the links in the show notes. I was so thrilled when I got a note back. Well, my new friend, I had to find a quiet moment to sit and learn your story. You weren't aware on Sunday, but I felt a connection with you. And after reading this, I know why I felt so light on my feet when I got that message back. And so, it was one of the questions I asked her. So, let's get on with this story. And it starts like this.

Mary Stone  02:22

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green, I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Decker at a garden party and art show co- hosted by Fran Delgado from Fran's farmhouse kitchen to benefit birth haven in Newton, New Jersey, which provides shelter and support for homeless pregnant women and girls. What a privilege to volunteer songs with my singing partner and dear friend Ken Roberts to help support one of Carol's many causes. Feeling our common thread of spirits rooted in nature. I asked Carol for an interview. 

Mary Stone  02:52

I am here with Carol Decker, and I have to say we have a thunderstorm brewing, so this will be interesting, but that's how nature is. You know? It just comes rolling in whenever it needs to roll in, right? And I got to meet you at the most just beautiful event that you hosted, a garden party that was benefiting Birth Haven, which is an organization here in Newton, New Jersey, I want to ask because that after the event, I sent you an email and sent you some stories that I thought would interest you in, that you commented back, that you felt a connection to me as I did to you, and that after you listened and or read, that you know why. So, I hope I'm not putting you on the spot to ask you why?

Carol Decker  03:35

You're not putting me on the spot. Okay, I have a feeling that you have a very spiritual soul just because you're drawn to growing things, flowers, roots, just that, that nature connection, of course, that's where I am, yeah? So that was pretty much no question, yeah. That was it, yeah, yeah. And you had a lovely singing voice. Thank you. I Love music,

Mary Stone  04:03

yeah, yes. And you were dancing around, and I kept encouraging you to sing with us, because you have a voice too. Carol shared her roots as a child and how, despite challenges, her mom nurtured her art so many things I admired as I learned about her, including the humbleness of her spirit, taking only partial credit for her talents and accomplishments. Then there's her business savvy. Carol's first job out of high school was as a legal secretary for an attorney, which gave her the insight and instinct to make a living doing what she loves.

Carol Decker  04:36

So all of my painting life, I had to figure it out by myself. I had nobody to really ask of I would go to the library. There was no Internet back then, bring books home, learn about reproduction rights, copyrights, not knowing anything was coming my way, but it came in big, big time. Yeah, so I had to know that stuff.

Mary Stone  05:02

When we look back at our lives, we see that things that happened had a purpose and a reason, even though, at the time, we had no clue why.

Carol Decker  05:11

You just get nudged. Yeah. About this, yeah, yeah. Look into that. Yeah. You have friends, like I said before in my return email. Some stay forever. Yeah, really fast. Beautiful friendships. Yeah. Others are there for whatever purpose, but they step in and they step out, yeah, and that they're there for a reason. And I don't know those reasons sometimes, but you're here to learn lessons. 

Mary Stone  05:37

We're here to learn lessons. Carol Sussex County home, reminiscent of a cabin in the Adirondacks, serves as her studio and as a gallery of her nature and wildlife art. So, when I read your website, I did that before your event, because I wanted to learn more about you. Of course, I knew who you were, because you're famous.

Carol Decker  05:56

So let me just say on that note, I don't consider myself famous. I consider myself having received the beautiful gift of making art, because it's a gift. I don't take full 100% credit for it. So I don't look at myself as being famous, but I look at myself as being receiving this beautiful gift, and my only responsibility my whole life was to make it better and better and better practice. Practice like you're playing a piano. You're not going to get better if you don't practice and sharing it and trying to do good things with it. That has nothing to do with being famous, right?

Mary Stone  06:41

The remarkable part of the story is that she is primarily self-taught. Her parents noticed her love of drawing and found local artists who gave informal lessons. She still has her very first painting, a watercolor of a bird she created when she was 12 years old.

Carol Decker  06:56

And the way I've learned to paint very little instructions, but when I was in elementary school, I was always drawing and drawing, and I was copying pictures out of newspapers, maybe cartoons, I don't remember exactly, but my parents noticed that, so they arranged for me to go to this woman's home after school who was just trying to make a little extra money and for Just a little bit of art lessons once a week. How old were you? Then I was 12, and she said, well, why don't you pick something you would like to do in watercolor, and let's see where you are as far as talent or none. And I chose a bird, not knowing my future journey, but it was a prophetic subject because of where I am today and what I've done, yeah, and I love the birds, and I just paint everything, nature, birds, mammals, everything, and I've done it my whole life. But I chose that bird, and I still have that original watercolor.

Mary Stone  07:56

I took a photo of her holding that beautiful piece of art, which will be on the blog post five years later, she'd go after school to a woman who painted flowers for the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, who taught by sharing the masters. And

Carol Decker  08:11

I would sit in her tiny little upstairs like a closet sized room myself and one of my friends would both do that and she had me copy the old masters. Really, you haven't seen it yet, but there's two of them upstairs. 

Mary Stone  08:27

Oh my gosh.

Carol Decker  08:28

So, she didn't she just sat there, and if I had a question, she'd answer it. She didn't paint for me. Mm hmm. But she would open a book, and she said, why don't you work on this today? Draw it and paint it in oils. I should show you now. You should,

Mary Stone  08:48

Let’s do it. Okay, I followed her upstairs to view her masterful duplication of Pinky by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1794 and Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough in 1770 they graced the walls of her guest room.

Carol Decker  09:03

This is Pinky, and that's blue, Boy games, Gainsborough oils and those what I did. I was 17. I was in high school.

Mary Stone  09:14

My mouth is open. I'm amazed.

Carol Decker  09:17

so when I did these copies, what I was learning was how to mix color, how to draw, to copy the old masters, is the best way in the world to learn to paint.

Mary Stone  09:30

For 17 years, Carol held an art show at Lafayette village with her husband Roy, framing everything. They filled the building providing free snacks with no admission fee. 30 or 40 fans would wait outside on opening day, and she sold paintings, many paintings, always giving a portion to help the community. The covers Carol painted for the New Jersey Outdoor magazine for 15 years propelled her popularity. She sold all the paintings. Years later, she put out to the. Universe that she wished she had saved one of them.

Carol Decker  10:02

And that little bass painting, that's an original, that was one of the covers for New Jersey outdoors. Oh, I did 80 covers for the state for 15 years. And then their subscriptions went up and went up and what? And then all of a sudden, I, if somebody said to me, you can, you can do 80 paintings for the state of 8080, 80, wow, that's what I would have said. I can't do that, but I did it. 

Mary Stone  10:28

15 years

Carol Decker  10:29

so, I sold every one of them. And then I regretted that, because to me, it was a product, and this is a business. Sold everyone some things I do set aside, but back then I sold all of those covers, and I thought, oh, I should have saved one, just for that period. Yeah. So, there was a collector at Branchville who bought two of my pictures, and one of them was one of those covers. And so he passed, and there was an auction for his stuff. And I said, I think I'll just go down see if I can buy one back of the one I did, and it wasn't this one. And then I'm sitting there waiting and waiting. I turn around looking this one of my ardent collectors, two seats back from me. Oh, no, she got them both, and I wasn't going to bid against her, because that would just raise her cost. Yeah. 

So, what happened and how I got this one back was really, um, you know, you put your stamp out there in the universe somewhere. I wanted one. I could get one back somewhere. And I got a phone call one day and this woman said, Gee, I would like to come and visit you and give you a painting back that you had sold to my late husband. And I said, or she didn't say, give it back. She says, I want to bring a painting back. I said, you know, I'm not in a position to buy it back, right? And I wasn't at that time. No, no, no, just want to give it to you. Okay? So she came up, and the reason that she had it was I had sold it to this gentleman and his wife. The wife passed, and then he married that woman, and she got everything that he owned, including his possessions. So that's how she came by. But she wasn't really interested. It wasn't her thing. And if I could have had one of those 80 covers back, I would have picked that one. Get out. It was inspired by my son who was fishing. So, I would have picked that one if I could have. She gave it back,

Mary Stone  12:23

and so the universe

Carol Decker  12:25

knew which one I wanted. That's crazy, isn't it,

Mary Stone  12:28

We meandered from the guest room and through the hallway that runs the perimeter of the second floor, overlooking the first floor of her gorgeous, rustic home. The walls are graced with Carol's paintings and decorated with furnishings that her husband Roy built, she shared how they found the gorgeous property with a creek and rolling hills. She and her husband and two sons moved into a 100 year old house on the property with only one bedroom. But Roy had promised that he would build an addition of a living room and a second bedroom, and he did so within six months later, he built a home for his brother and then their forever home that serves as Carol's studio and Art Gallery all in one.

Carol Decker  13:10

And when Roy said, I'm going to quit my job and build a house for Clint and Maggie, and he was a lineman for Sussex royal electric at that time, and I immediately went, I had a major anxiety attack. How are we going to live? Who's going to pay the bills? What's going to happen? And I got up at three o'clock in the morning. And I don't know if I mentioned this tidbit to you already, but I was, I was in a major anxiety attack. I was worried he quit his job to build

Mary Stone  13:44

that but have you ever discussed how the finances were going to work?

Carol Decker  13:49

We kind of did. You'll be okay, you know that kind of you'll paint more pictures here. But what happened was, when I was staying sitting at three o'clock in the morning over a cup of coffee, shake a little bit. There was a Reader's Digest. I love that book, and I was on the table, and I opened it up. You know how they have all those quotes? Yeah, I just opened it up to this page. And there was a message for me on that page, and it said, I never forgot. It said, be bold and mighty forces come to aid you. And I build and mighty forces come to aid you, and I knew it was for me. And I stopped shaking, drank my coffee, went back to bed, and never had another moment. And I I painted. We paid the bills. Bills weren't bad then, yeah, they weren't as high. Yeah, we managed.

Mary Stone  14:39

What a delight it was to look through her piles of journals, pages and pages of observations in nature are described and illustrated in pencil, many of which turned into paintings over the years. Carol shows me her favorite sketch of an adorable chickadee and asks me to read what she wrote. Little Ariel Acrobat, a. Always hanging from something upside down. March 2, which she said, was her anniversary, I believe I went out to fill the bird feeder. Impatient chickadee scolding me to hurry up, decided instead to coax him to my hand for sunflower seeds. It only took five minutes. He came to my hand twice. I could hardly feel this tiny bit of fluff land. Did he just enter my world, or I his such beautiful words and beautiful sketches that says it all? These are the results of years of observing Carol said, watching Carol turn each page, sharing the memories of those moments was precious. I felt as if I were in the woods with her as she reminisced about the adventures in the natural world. Her art and giving spirit demonstrate the circle of life and the importance of the difference we can make in the world by sharing the gifts that we are given. Towards the end of our visit, Carol shared what the symbol means after her signature on her art G-o-d, one letter upon the next, in gratitude for the gifts she’d been given. We wrapped up our delightful visit scrolling through the Carol Decker wildlife art studio Facebook page where Carol teaches and shares her skills in art

Carol Decker  16:19

and that one there was called Let freedom sing, because it was my airbrush flag in the background. Oh, yeah, Facebook titled that Let freedom sing. Nice,

Mary Stone  16:31

beautiful art. You're a beautiful person, 39-year-old, forever, yes,

Carol Decker  16:36

Well, I have so much to do yet. You do? I have so much, yeah, and I have just the greatest feeling of, yeah, love and, and just gratefulness, I guess, gratefulness, I'm just so grateful. Look at this beautiful I just don't believe how I could have ended up like this, but I got this gift, and that's what started it, yeah. So I do and a lot of courage when you think about your life, things that you should very strong, believe me, you are very strong, very strong person. And that's why I was awakened, I guess you call it and aware, because I could handle what I learned, and I know how I start every painting. What I do is, I say, I can do that. Yeah, that's

Mary Stone  17:25

all. I say, Okay, well, that's great. I love that I could do that.

Carol Decker  17:29

There's nothing stopping you, as long as it's in your head, yeah, positive, yeah, blinded, it will come out. 

Mary Stone  17:35

Yes, indeed. We are all going to have adversities in our life, but living in gratitude helps that instead of focusing on the problem, we can live in the anticipation of the grace that's going to come from it and the lessons. One of the most beautiful things that I've learned in my life was the lesson of the leaf, as I've shared with you the wisdom that came from my brother.  Carol asked about when I would finish my book, and she wanted a signed copy. I look forward to that day. We'll see when the universe wants that to happen. I invite you to visit Carol's website. Carol Decker wildlife art studio.net, she also has a Facebook page where she does some artful teaching. It's just a beautiful gift, and she does it for no cost. 

Mary Stone  18:20

We spent several hours together, and it was the most delightful afternoon I've spent in a very long time getting to know my new friend. There were so many highlights, the things we have in common, our shared love of nature and its remarkable cadence of perfection and the beauty and the wisdom gained from it, the awareness of the power of her intention and speaking words aloud for the universe to hear. And of course, I admire Carol's humble spirit. She's not famous. She's only taken partial credit for what she does in this life. For creativity is a gift from God, which is in her signature. I admire her optimism, her deep, rooted love of life and others and our natural world and all the critters we share it with. Thank you, Carol, for sharing your light and love and your beautiful art. You indeed are a light. 

Mary Stone  19:11

And thank you my kind listeners, for joining me on that visit, and I treasure this time together. I hope you do too, and I hope you take a pause every time you meet a new friend or run into somebody that touches you, even if it's just a moment in time, it's all part of the plan, and in it comes such great wisdom and joy. May we all live in joy even through these difficult times, because it's here for us to embrace, just as nature is, may we always respect it, love it and love each other. Thanks so much. I will see you next time on the screen porch. Have a great day. 

Mary Stone  19:53

You can follow garden dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden dilemmas.com and on in. Instagram at hashtag. Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, delights and discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.