Rod Becklund's Biography

Rod Becklund with some of his fantastic wildlife artworks

Rod Becklund was born in 1966 in New Castle, Indiana; a small town about 60 miles east of Indianapolis. Rod had an early love of art as he was always drawn to anything creative and artistic. He has always been fascinated with the notion of creating something from just an idea or vision. Rod and his wife Lucinda moved to Florida in 1988. His first job in Florida was at a sign shop painting billboards, cars, trucks, and airplanes. In 1989 he began entering and winning sand sculpting contests. That is when he fell in love with sculpting. Rodney soon learned to sculpt chain saw carvings. He became so proficient that Rod was commissioned to sculpt a 12 foot tall sculpture of Thomas Edison for the main entrance to the Edison Mall. Chainsaw carving soon left Rod wanting more and more detail, when he began creating his line of Florida waterbirds that are internationally collected and he is well known for.

When creating a new piece Rod travels to a bird sanctuary where he observes the bird and shoots several rolls of film on one bird to capture just the right pose. Next its back to the studio where he transforms his fully formed idea into its 3-dimensional reality in wood. Then a mold is created and birds are cast in wood /resin. The birds are then detailed out and sanded where needed and then it is time to paint with a quality finish. When painting a bird he lays out all his photo references to get the sculpture to accurately portray the real bird as close as possible.

All Rod Becklund pieces are signed and numbered limited editions of 500 or 1000. Rodney has several sold out editions. Rod's newest piece is a wall hanging Blue Heron that seems to be emerging from a beautiful piece of driftwood.