The Waterfowl Festival: A Celebration of Eastern Shore Culture and Art from … Everywhere

The Waterfowl Festival in downtown Easton, Maryland, may have the appearances of a local shindig but having just celebrated its fifty-fourth year this past November, the three-day citywide exhibition of avian art and Eastern Shore culture regularly draws more than double the town’s population. With tickets selling out months in advance, I gleaned it would be big. But I didn’t expect the festival would give me the chance to meet artists from my home state of California, creators from Canada, or even for the featured artist, highlighted as being with the festival from its very first year, to be based in New Jersey. 

When I arrived, a lovely couple from Frederick struck up a conversation with me as I got my bearings. They make the drive out each year for the festival and offered some insider tips including which galleries were their favorites, and that there would be a fun little easter egg hidden in each of the featured artist’s paintings. 

I found Al Barker, the featured artist for 2025, in the PNC Pavilion which also housed the work of Al Jordan, the masterpiece carver along with twenty-one more artists. This and all of the art pavilions were named for PNC Bank, a decade-long sponsor of the Waterfowl Festival. 

“PNC is proud to sponsor the arts and invest in the cultural vitality of Maryland,” says Regional President Laura Gamble. “Our partnership with the Waterfowl Festival has celebrated the unique culture and natural beauty of the Eastern Shore while showcasing exceptional artists. We are honored to help create experiences that connect communities and strengthen the cultural fabric of the region.” And truly, the festival does just that.

Barker’s paintings depict seascapes, houses and dunes lined along the coast, with precise birds pricked onto the canvas. The minuscule, deliberate details in his paintings invoked the same sense of wonder I get when seeing an elaborate miniature diorama, imagining just how steady the artist’s hands must be to place all the elements together. 

As for the little hidden element the couple from Frederick made sure I knew to look for: each of Barker’s paintings incorporated a tiny dot of bright red. Sometimes the red was more noticeable, a signature that draws you in and lets you know whose art you’re looking at, but in some of the works was more like a picture puzzle game. I had to stand and look for a long time before I finally found the tiniest dot hidden among reeds or the sea. 

Similarly, the master carver was given that title for good reason. Jordan’s animal statues and bird decoys were so incredibly detailed I had to remind myself I was looking at a carving and not a taxidermy. In particular, Jordan’s decoy of an owl awed me with every line of the feathers, so gently carved and with such finesse that they genuinely looked like they would be soft to the touch, something that I could run my fingers through and feel every individual feather.

While it was clear why Barker and Jordan were featured, they weren’t the only stellar standouts from the PNC Pavilion. This major art tent highlighted a vast array of avian art in pretty much every medium you could think of. And the artistic renditions of birds showcased were more than just ducks and geese; dozens of species were depicted as well as seascapes and nature as a whole. 

Susan Fay Schauer from Talbot County really caught my eye. She is a thread artist whose canvas is fabric that she paints upon with a sewing machine. The work put into these pieces was astounding, with every individual threading choice making up the textures and colors of the art. This was beyond standard embroidery; Schauer used her sewing machine to build layers upon layers. Her husband and faithful assistant was manning the area when I stopped by, holding out an example that Schauer was working on live at the festival. He allowed us to run our fingers over the stitching and see how interwoven everything becomes on the backside of the art, really hammering home just how much thread goes into Schauer’s work. 

While the PNC Pavilion had an excellent set of incredibly talented artists, it was only one of six PNC-sponsored spaces scattered throughout downtown Easton where the festival’s participants were on display. A personal favorite of mine was Art at the Avalon, partially due to the venue itself. The Avalon is a historic theatre space, originally constructed in 1922 and remodeled into the Art Deco style that still stands today in 1934. This space was tucked away from many of the other art pavilions and housed the smallest number of artists with just seven making up the gallery. It was a very quiet and intimate venue compared to the others and I was happy to have stumbled upon it. I especially enjoyed the work of Sandy Alanko from Tilghman, MD, who elevated simple watercolors by incorporating paper craft elements, giving three-dimensional depth and shadows to ducks taking flight. 

The Waterfowl Festival is at its core a nature-based fine arts festival; however, some elements of the festival focus on a different type of art. The art of duck hunting and retriever training is a key draw, with demonstrations taking place throughout the weekend. I would be remiss not to mention the sheer joy that watching a dog do its job can bring to a crowd, and what a lovely bit of outdoor time sitting down and watching these demonstrations does for gaining a second wind. 

Retriever training is truly an art in itself, almost like a dance that trainer and dog do together. Even if your main focus at the festival is fine arts, I highly recommend checking out one of these demos. I am only slightly biased because I accidentally sat in the prep zone for these working dogs and many of them made sure to wag their tail and say hello to me before showing off their training.

Beyond the offerings of the Waterfowl Festival, the entire downtown area of Easton gets involved. Several art galleries lining the main area where the festival takes place got into the spirit. The Zach Gallery, Troika Gallery, and the Zebra Gallery all had their doors open for free and had their own displays of waterfowl-inspired art. Truly everywhere you turned in downtown Easton you would be greeted by some facet of the festival, from food stands to musicians, to independent art showcases and even just the massive number of working retrievers walking down the street with their owners. 

In short, there’s a lot going on at the Waterfowl Festival. From its showcase of national and international artists working in a vast range of mediums to a near-overwhelming variety of offerings in music, demonstrations, and food—it’s no wonder crowds return year after year. And you can feel good about the ticket; in addition to supporting artists, profits from the Waterfowl Festival are donated to wildlife conservation, education, and research particularly in the Chesapeake Bay region. Mark your calendar, the organizers have announced the 2026 Waterfowl Festival will take place November 13-15.