Ellen McCaleb

Ellen McCaleb is a fish carver and painter who recreates trophy fish decoys off of client photographs and measurements. Her work follows the wood carving traditions established in Europe during the 19th century.

McCaleb works out of a farmhouse in New Hampshire using a band saw, two-handled drawknife, and two-handled spokeshave to shape the fish, before filing, sanding and rasping them. A five layer paint takes six weeks, and there is a 12-month order backlog for the sculptures that start at $110 per inch and were described in Forbes as being so beautiful "that your descendants will be gaffing one another to inherit them."