Artist George Weymouth's work on display

By LEGION TAYLOR
Reporter


George Weymouth with one of his works at the property appraiser’s office.

When Propety Appraiser Ed Brimner was looking to decorate the lobby of his office, he was looking for a talented local artist whose work would not just be decorative, but also be representative of the splendor of Wakulla County. He found the perfect artist for the job in George Weymouth, a resident of Wakulla who is known for his depictions of Florida’s wilderness and wildlife.
Brimner reached out to Weymouth about purchasing a painting to decorate the property appraiser’s office lobby, and Weymouth, rather than making Brimner pay, gave him five of his pieces as a gift.
The pictures depict various waterfowl and nature scenes, including birds such as the Black-necked stilt, a common shorebird, pictured here. One of the pieces even came with a handcarved wooden pictureframe, made years ago by a local carver, not Weymouth himself.
Some of them also bear hidden details, such as small images of Florida made to look like a partially eaten leaf. Weymouth creates works such as these as much as he is able, proudly calling himself a wildlife illustrator.
Weymouth is a naturalist, an expert ornithologist, an illustrator and woodcarver, who has lived in the forests, swamps, and beaches of Florida for more than 60 years.
Weymouth moved to southwest Florida in 1958. There, he quickly got to work learning the ins and outs of the Everglades, tagging alligators and catching snakes in the cypress swamps he and his friend Charles LeBuff spent many of their nights in.
At the end of 1958, when LeBuff moved to Sanibel, Weymouth took over for him at the Everglades Wonder Garden in Bonita Springs as the head tour guide. He stayed there for five years, learning everything he could about the natural splendor of Florida, and eventually moved to Sanibel in 1963.
It was on Sanibel Island that he emerged as an outstanding ornithologist, and using his knowledge of the area and its wildlife, he started taking people on tours so that visitors could better understand what they saw when they visited the island. He spent years studying and watching and learning, making himself an expert on all the things there were to know about the birds who make Florida their home. He eventually moved to Wakulla in 1986.
The only thing possibly more notable than his wildlife expertise, he is also a skilled painter, woodcarver, and craftsman, spending weeks at a time on each piece in order to ensure that every detail, no matter how minute, is exact.  
Weymouth has also been an avid bow hunter for much of his life, going so far as to learning how to knap his own arrowheads out of flint via the methods that Native Americans used for centuries. He resides now in Sopchoppy, on the very edge of the Apalachicola National Forest, where he used to run Weymouth Wildlife Art.
While Weymouth used to travel around the globe with his wife, he has settled down here in Florida for good, and spends his time with his art or volunteering at Gulf Specimen Marine Lab or with the Coastal Plains Institute, to continue supporting and protecting the wilderness as much as he can.
Though he is now firmly retired, he still paints and carves as much as he can, never letting go of the love for nature his long and storied life has granted him.