Wrightsville native: Bass Pro artist comes full circle « Columbia ...

Denny Burkhart hand paints all of the various types of fish on display at Uncle Buck’s Fishbowl &amp; grill at the Bass Pro Shop in East Peoria.Â*FRED ZWICKY/JOURNAL STAR EAST PEORIA, Ill. — Denny Burkhart’s first art project came in the first grade, while he was finger painting a fish. The picture wasn’t a keeper, Burkhart said recently, but it certainly is one that has come full circle. “This isn’t a story, but it’s true that I did a fish,” Burkhart recalled while adding details to a painting of a Mutton snapper, one of what appeared to be a long list of fish murals on the entrance wall leading visitors into Uncle Buck’s Fishbowl &amp; Grill, which is part of East Peoria’s Bass Pro Shop. Burkhart was painting a variety of fish species on a wall that will serve as a reference point for visitors who will be able to search and identify similar fish paintings inside the restaurant and bowling alley. It’s a good way, he said, for children and adults to learn a little biology before shopping, eating or bowling after Sept. 21, when Bass Pro opens in East Peoria. Burkhart has painted a lot of fish in the past <a href="http://afashionbuy.com/"><strong>Wholesale Replica Gucci Sunglass Online</strong></a> seven years since being hired as an independent contractor working on new or remodeled Bass Pro Shops. “They saw what I could do with birds, and animals and then fish,” he said. “I like the nature of this work.” Burkhart, 59, of Wrightsville, Pa., came to East Peoria in May to start working on the detailed portraits of the animals visitors will see inside the new store. His artwork also can be seen in other Bass Pro stores in Independence, Mo.; Altoona, Iowa; Branson, Mo.; Clarksville, Ind.; Bolingbrook; and Gurnee. It’s a refreshing change of pace for Burkhart, a lifelong artist and painter whose eyesight was being strained from 15 years of small, detailed paintings of postage stamps. Burkhart was employed with the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corp., an agency that oversees the <a href="http://www.afashionbuy.com/Handbags-Juicy-Handbag-f2-39-c3-17.html"><strong>Cheap Juicy Handbags Outlet</strong></a> design and production of postage stamps in dozens of foreign countries. “I must have designed 3,000 stamps for them,” Burkhart said. “From Nicaragua to China. Working on (small-sized projects) . . . the eye strain was incredible.” A graduate of York Academy of Arts, Burkhart got his start painting wildlife with a variety of magazines. His work with Bass Pro Shops has become a “new lease on life” since the canvasses he works on are large commercial retail shop walls instead of the tiny thumb-sized canvass of a stamp. Bass Pro spokeswoman Katie Mitchell said the company has 12 imagery specialists, seven muralists and faux finishers using their unique skills to add details and museum-like scenery to the East Peoria store. Typically, 20 to 30 craftsmen are on site. “There are a whole host of craftsmen, muralists that we call upon to help our stores,” Mitchell said. Burkhart’s passion also is a family affair, which helps when he’s away from his wife for long periods of time. His wife, Joan, is the head of an arts department at a Pennsylvania school and his daughter is a landscape architect. He is a proud grandfather-to-be, who is excited for a brief trip home later this month before returning to East Peoria to put the final touches on some of his <a href="http://www.afashionbuy.com/"><strong>cheap gucci sunglass</strong></a> work. Then, he’s likely off to southern Texas to work on the paintings at a new Bass Pro Shop in Harlingen, where the hot summer has been difficult for workers. He’s thankful that he’s not going there until summer is over. “The people down there are saying that if you walk outside, your shoes will melt,” Burkhart said.