Jude Brunet

(1969 - )

Jude Brunet was born in 1969 and is the son and younger brother to World Champion carvers Tan and Jett Brunet. Despite his upbringing he did not consider decorative decoy carving as a profession until he was twenty years of age. Like his father and brother he was artistically inclined and even graduated in 1989 from the Art Institute of Houston with a degree in commercial art.

He, at first, was not interested in making decoys, but many people kept asking him to make decorative decoys for them and he seemed to have inherited the ability and by the time he graduated he had four orders for carved birds.

Jude, like his father and brother, uses the traditional tools to carve his decoys. Besides the decorative decoys he also enjoys making hunting decoys as well. He emphasizes that on his hunting decoys he uses acrylic and on his decorative decoys he uses oil paints. The paint on his decorative decoys helps him achieve a sense of softness in the carved feathers. He also feels that he is a better painter then carver as he spends more of his attention on making sure the painting is very realistic and full of detail. He studies birds and makes sketches and notes about them with his father and brother.

When he started making decoys he use to travel to exhibitions and contests all over the united states but now has settled down and only travels to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the Easton Waterfowl Festival in the fall and the Ward Foundation World Championship in the spring.

Jude Brunet has won the Ward Foundation World Championship Wildfowl Carving competition, Decorative Decoy Pairs, twice.