Outdoor sports cartoonist Jim Snook has passed away.
James Franklin (Jim) Snook
February 14, 1936 – September 13, 2021
Jim was a lifelong artist. He told stories about how his mom would iron paper grocery bags for him to use as drawing paper when he was a kid. One of his first paying jobs was to paint signs for the neighbors: “eggs for sale.”
From there he branched out to his first love: oil and acrylic paintings, capturing all manner of landscapes and wildlife from around the western United States. He was always proudest of using each medium to get just the right “painterly qualities” in his pieces.
He went on to earn degrees in art education and outdoor education at SOC, and spent many years teaching high school art at Eagle Point. He sold his first cartoon in 1979, and quit his teaching job shortly after to pursue the cartoon business full-time. His cartoons conveyed a life well-lived: years of skipping school to go fishing, heading up to Tillamook Burn with his brothers to go deer hunting, camping out with his family. They captured his goofy sense of humor, love of nature, and keen eye for the human condition.
He left a vibrant legacy of creativity and appreciation for all forms of art: a generation of art students, a decades-long relationship with loyal cartoon fans, and a family chock-full of artists, musicians, and photographers. We will remember him on the deck at home in Rocky Point, Nikon camera trained on the latest backyard bird. We’ll remember him in front of the fireplace, shuffling out chords on his old Martin, a sense of rhythm all his own. We’ll remember him with a Sharpie in hand, bringing a snarky mouse or a curious bear to life with a few strokes on paper. We’ll remember him gently giving us tips on sketching or painting or just how to bring our observations to life. He will be sorely missed, but he left the world a better place in so many ways.
Jim’s website has a number of cartoon prints and posters.
