Bio
Colin S. McNair (b. 1986) is an American artist and artisan living and working in Kingston, Massachusetts. His art reflects interests in the natural environment and conservation, with an emphasis on birds, fish, marine animals, wildlife, and functionality. An avid outdoorsman, he prefers to study his subjects in the great outdoors.
Colin was fully immersed in woodworking and art from the beginning. His father, Mark S. McNair, and older brother, Ian T. McNair, are both fellow artisans specializing in decoys and Americana. Legend has it that Colin completed and sold his first carvings around the age of 6. From this early beginning, he continued the craft through grade school and college. At 17, the youngest McNair began exhibiting and selling works in museums and galleries. He began his formal art education at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut. He began to show at The Cooley Gallery, located between his college art studios and home workshops. Colin went on to receive a degree in biology and studio art from the College of Charleston while also showing works at the Audubon Gallery.
Some of McNair's pieces are chiefly decorative; however, many are designed and constructed for a job, and their practical application is encouraged. McNair waterfowl, turkey, and dove decoys are known to move from the shelf to the field and back again with the change of seasons. Colin intends for his carvings to get better with time, use, and care.
Since 2008, Colin has been a Decoy Specialist with Copley Fine Art Auctions in Massachusetts, where he assists the country's top Sporting Art buyers and sellers in trading America’s finest decoys and flat art.
Colin McNair at the Museum of American Bird Art, 2013