Orca Bates (born 1976) was the favorite model for artist
Jamie Wyeth. He was first painted in late 1989, and numerous times over the next five years. Orca was a "wild child", described by Jamie as "more of a seagull than a person". Orca's parents, Daniel and Amy Bates, had divorced by the time Orca was 12. Both remarried and continued to live on
Manana Island (adjacent to
Monhegan
Monhegan () is an island in the Gulf of Maine located in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. A plantation, a minor civil division in the state of Maine falling between unincorporated area and a town, it is located about off the mainland. Th ...
island, about 10 miles
6 kmoff Pemaquid Point on the mainland), where they were neighbors of
Jamie Wyeth. Orca and his younger sister, Kila, split their time between the two households.
Orca currently lives in
Pine Island, New York. He married Colleen Dougherty in 2011.
Orca's younger half-brother, Cat Bates (born 1986), also modeled for
Jamie Wyeth in 1995.
[Anderson, Cindy, "A Portrait of Orca Bates", ''Yankee'', Vol. 60, No. 9, Sept. 1996, p. 127]
Wyeth's paintings of Orca Bates include:
*"Portrait of Orca Bates," 1989, oil on panel, 50 x 40 in.,
William A Farnsworth Library & Art Museum, standing holding a large bird
* “Orca Bates,” 1990, oil on panel, 40 x 40 in., collection of
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
* "Orca" 1990, Standing in blue uniform, 50 x 44 in.
* ''Screen Door to the Sea'', 1994, oil on panel, 36 x 30 in.
Additional reading
Anderson, Cindy, "A Portrait of Orca Bates", ''Yankee'', Vol. 60, No. 9, Sept. 1996, pp. 54–127
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Orca
American child models
1976 births
Living people