By By Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Dennis Minor may be Hartselle and Morgan County’s best kept secret as a famous sporting artist.
Minor, who was born in Hartselle and now lives in Lacey’s Spring, is one of seven artists whose paintings are in the running for the 2010 Ducks Unlimited International Artist of the Year Award. He received the award in 2000 and also has two DU National Artist of the Year Awards to his credit.
His current entry “Bean’s Creek” depicts a black Labrador retriever sitting on the edge of a marsh in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Priceville. To vote for it you can go to the DU website, www.ducks.org and access for the artist of the year link.
Even though Minor’s career demands that he travel long distances from home, his mind and heart are anchored in Alabama and he always looks forward to the return.
A Vietnam veteran, Minor owned and operated a sporting goods business in Huntsville for several years before devoting full-time to his art career. Even then he did some painting in a room that was set apart from the rest of the store.
His exposure to fishing supplies in his store and love for the outdoors led him to develop a passion and skill as a fly-fisherman. He has fly fished in several northwestern states and even taught students how to successfully pursue the sport. He plans to take a month off next spring to mix business with pleasure. While enroute to Ketchikan, Alaska, where he is commissioned for a painting, he will stop and do some fishing in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Minor developed an interest in art as a youngster thanks to a cousin and his grandmother, the late Mary Ellen Boyer, but he had no formal training outside of what he picked up in high school art classes. His art captured national DU exposure in the early 1980’s after he exhibited some of his work at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, S.C. He now exhibits in galleries in Atlanta, Ga. and Vail, Colorado.
Today, Minor spends a big part of his time painting dogs on commission for plantation owners. He is also involved in promoting waterfowl and wetlands conservation as a member of DU and a former local committeeman.